Indigenous legislation among top issues at Union of B.C. Municipalities convention

An annual gathering of municipal leaders from across British Columbia opens in Vancouver Monday with the province’s Indigenous rights legislation high on the agenda, along with housing and public safety, among other topics.

The Union of B.C. Municipalities convention runs until Friday and president Cori Ramsay says the future of B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act will be top of mind for many of the nearly 2,000 expected delegates.

Ramsay says local governments are highly committed to reconciliation and have been working for years to build relationships with First Nations.

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But the city councillor from Prince George, B.C., says uncertainty has stemmed from recent court rulings, including a successful challenge by First Nations to B.C.’s mineral tenure system

The B.C. Court of Appeal ruled in that case that B.C.’s Indigenous rights legislation, known as DRIPA, should be interpreted to incorporate the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into provincial laws with immediate effect.

Premier David Eby backed down on a plan to suspend or amend DRIPA in April amid strong opposition from many Indigenous leaders, while members of the provincial Conservatives have called for the law to be scrapped altogether.

Ramsay says delegates will also ask Eby’s government to reverse clawbacks in funding for community housing, deal with unprecedented mental health and addiction issues in communities across B.C., and renew funding for the FireSmart program aimed at boosting resilience to worsening wildfires.

Both Eby and B.C. Conservative Party Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay and scheduled to attend the conference later this week.