Decades-old treaty negotiations are approaching completion in British Columbia as recent court decisions alter the landscape for longstanding indigenous land claims.
The developments are drawing renewed attention to the main avenues for resolving such claims—treaty negotiations, agreements outside the treaty process, and court proceedings—and the implications each can have for land ownership in the province.
In the latest development, government documents this month showed that more than 135,000 hectares of B.C. Crown land on Vancouver Island—roughly 12 times the size of Vancouver—have been committed or identified for transfer to First Nations through negotiated agreements.
Meanwhile, last year’s landmark Cowichan decision granted the Cowichan Tribes Aboriginal title over about 800 acres in Richmond, B.C., while further land transfers and uncertainties over mineral rights in other cases have been sources of contention….