B.C. government rejects Conservative claims of massive secret First Nations land transfers

B.C.'s NDP government has rejected claims by the Opposition Conservatives that it is involved in massive and secret handovers of public lands to First Nations.

The B.C. Conservatives charged this week that the NDP government was making secret deals transferring more than 97,000 square kilometres — an area roughly the size of Portugal — to First Nations, stripping away democratic decision-making. Nearly 96,000 square kilometres of that claimed transfer involves the traditional territory of the Tahltan Nation in northern B.C., which has roughly 4,000 members.

No such secret deals are taking place, the B.C. government said August 13. In a written response from the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, the government stated it is not negotiating a handover of all public lands in the Tahltan territory and said any formal negotiations would not seek to transfer the entirety of that territory.

The B.C. Conservatives pointed to a 2020 Shared Prosperity Agreement between the province and the Tahltan Nation as evidence. However, that public agreement does not outline a transfer of all Tahltan territory. Instead, it establishes a framework to negotiate shared decision-making on resource development and identifies specific community lands in Dease Lake, Iskut and Telegraph Creek areas for transfer.

The Conservatives also cited 1,350 square kilometres of land transfers disclosed in B.C.'s recently released public accounts. Spencer Chandra Herbert, the minister of Indigenous relations and reconciliation, said these transfers are part of treaty negotiations underway for decades and previously publicly reported — not secret deals.

"Unlike other provinces, most of B.C. is not covered by historical treaties," Herbert said. "For more than three decades, governments of every political stripe in B.C. have recognized that negotiated agreements are the best path to resolving unresolved Indigenous land claims."

Robert Phillips, a member of the First Nations Summit political executive, said these agreements bring economic certainty and benefit both First Nations and all of B.C. He pointed to recent approvals by the Tahltan for the $900 million Skeena gold and silver project, expected to create 800 jobs during construction and 800 during operations.