Bruce Uzelman

Liberal and NDP governments in Ottawa and Victoria are crafting very progressive agendas. They often have commendable objectives, but they show no regard for the proportionality of the actions taken, and no consideration of the impacts. …A January 2023 press release marked the beginning of another problematic policy. The government wrote that it reached a co-management deal with four First Nations to manage Crown lands in Treaty 8 territories. The release implied the agreement was necessitated by a 2021 Supreme Court decision, which found that Treaty 8 rights had been breached by the impacts of development authorized by the government of B.C. The reforms then and now, however, go far beyond compliance with that court decision. The Eby government now plans to share its authority to make land use decisions with the 203 First Nations across the province. …To facilitate this, the province is planning to make changes to the Land Act. The language describing the changes is confusing.