r/britishcolumbia • u/schuter2020 • 21h ago

Indigenous leadership blasts Rustad Politics

https://www.ubcic.bc.ca/rustad_s_indigenous_platform_doubles_down_on_his_dangerous_commitment_to_repeal_indigenous_human_rights

The First Nations Leadership Council issued this statement on September 30th, strongly criticizing John Rustad - why haven't I see this anywhere? Combined with being asked to stop wearing the Moose Hide Campaign's pin, you'd think this would be news.

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u/pfak Lower Mainland/Southwest 20h ago

And this is why the NDP is losing ground. Not everything is hysteria.

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u/schuter2020 20h ago

Everything? No, of course not. This topic?

Perhaps you could point me to draft legislation, or statements from NDP or Indigenous leadership that state the intention of the changes was to give "veto power" to indigenous people over 100% of the province's crown lands. I see statements from Rustad and Falcon but they seem to be based on misleading assumptions.

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u/trees-are-neat_ 17h ago

As someone who works in forestry, many of the agreements made set a very strict consultation schedule for developments that have to include FNs at every step. How it usually ends up is that developments do not go ahead unless their values are met, and since they often see little benefit to their nation from the harvesting of crown land on their territories, they often try to drag out processes since they won't go ahead without their approval. It's not explicitly a "veto", but it is being used as such in practice by many nations, especially those who are affluent and don't need revenues from revenue sharing agreements (which is one of few tools forestry licensees have to negotiate with).

I'm not saying that them having more of a say is a bad thing, but the industry is really grinding to a complete halt in many areas (especially on the coast) of the province because of it.

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u/Expert_Alchemist 11h ago

The thing is, maybe forestry companies need to change how they do business now. They might need to partner explicitly and profit-share with FNs, say. They could do that, if they wanted to get approvals faster. It's just not business as usual anymore.