Juno News - B.C.’s MASSIVE land giveaway is happening behind closed doors

00:00:00.000 Well, the B.C. government has revealed plans to transfer a huge parcel of provincial territory

00:00:11.120 to First Nations groups.

00:00:13.220 Some estimate the size of the territory to be transferred as being about as big as Portugal,

00:00:18.760 135,000 hectares.

00:00:21.920 This post by Carrie Lynn Findlay, leader of the B.C. Conservative Party.

00:00:26.580 The NDP are taking a pair of scissors to the map of British Columbia, Hatley Castle here,

00:00:33.140 downtown Victoria here, a chunk of Crown land the size of Portugal there, snip snip.

00:00:38.300 BC is being dismantled in real time in backroom discussions, and British Columbians have no

00:00:44.820 say in.

00:00:46.620 Our guest today is Scott McInnes, conservative MLA from British Columbia for the writing

00:00:51.420 of Columbia River Revelstoke.

00:00:53.340 He's the opposition critic for Indigenous relations. 1.00

00:00:57.340 Welcome, Scott.

00:00:58.340 Thank you so much, Mark, for having me on today to discuss this.

00:01:01.340 Maybe you could fill us in on exactly what you think the government of British Columbia

00:01:06.340 is doing.

00:01:08.340 That's a really good question, Mark.

00:01:10.340 And I think myself and my colleagues, and I think a growing segment of the public would

00:01:19.340 say, we don't know.

00:01:21.340 That is the issue.

00:01:22.520 We are seeing agreement after agreement signed between the provincial government

00:01:28.120 and various First Nations around the province that is being done in back rooms

00:01:33.840 without informing the public, without consultation with local government.

00:01:39.520 And what we're seeing here is a massive transfer of wealth and land and executive power

00:01:46.880 without, we don't think, a mandate to do so.

00:01:50.840 I mean, certainly the BC NDP did not campaign in October 2024 to head down a path that they see

00:01:58.720 reconciliation happening in this manner. So our job in opposition right now is to draw attention

00:02:05.380 to this for the public, because these are very, very serious issues that are taking place. And

00:02:10.520 we certainly believe that what I call the NDP is pursuing is a reconciliation behind an iron

00:02:17.440 curtain. So it's very important that we draw attention to a complex set of issues for the

00:02:23.780 public and make it digestible because it's ultimately very consequential. Yeah, I would say

00:02:29.460 so. I mean, it suggests to me that Premier Eby knows he's not going to get reelected. I mean,

00:02:36.420 this is what you do when you don't care how unpopular your policy is with voters. You know

00:02:43.740 what I mean? Does it strike you as being like that? Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it gets a sense

00:02:49.420 of that, that there's a bit of a policy of kind of ramming through as many of these as possible

00:02:54.960 on your way out the door. But I also firmly believe that, you know, just ideologically

00:03:00.340 entrenched within this government is, you know, a pretty radical land back set of policies and

00:03:06.740 legislation. So, you know, it could look like they're trying to do this as they step away. But

00:03:12.940 I firmly believe that they would be doing this anyway.

00:03:17.160 Oh, okay.

00:03:17.920 So you don't think this is a case of, I'm leaving anyway, so I might as well do what

00:03:22.820 I know people don't want, because they're going to be up in arms over it.

00:03:28.000 But this is a massive chunk of territory, and yet we know very little about it.

00:03:32.840 I mean, why do you suppose there's been so little said by the Premier about this?

00:03:38.940 Well, I think the answer to that is a very simple one, and that's because the public

00:03:42.360 wouldn't be in support of it. You know, the government keeps defending a nation-to-nation

00:03:48.500 negotiations and a relationship, and that the public shouldn't be involved because that's

00:03:53.520 the framework. And, you know, we have to say, well, excuse me, but, you know, what you're

00:03:58.280 pursuing has massive impacts on the public interest. And it is absolutely incumbent on

00:04:04.600 the Crown to include the public in those discussions, which the NDP is certainly not

00:04:09.540 doing. And I think, you know, since the Cowichan decision from last August in 2025, the public is

00:04:14.900 slowly waking up and able to digest. Again, these are very, very complicated issues. When we're

00:04:20.560 talking about subjects like, you know, Aboriginal title, DRIPA, these kinds of things, you know,

00:04:26.700 up until about a year and a half ago, it just sort of flew over the public's head because it's very

00:04:30.300 complicated. But now I think the public is going, hold on a second here. I didn't sign up for this

00:04:35.420 kind of, you know, set of policies from the government that I elected. And, you know,

00:04:40.120 you're certainly seeing David Eby when we raise it, getting his hand, you know, caught in the

00:04:44.540 proverbial cookie jar a little bit. I'm surprised there isn't more pushback from what is within his

00:04:50.360 own caucus or members who are going to run again. And they look at this as being a major impediment

00:04:57.100 in terms of getting re-elected.

00:04:59.320 Are you hearing much disgruntled talk from, say, the back benches of the government?

00:05:09.600 No, Mark, and I would actually argue that it's the opposite.

00:05:12.440 I think there are members of the NDP caucus who are probably even more progressively radical

00:05:18.220 on these issues than the Premier himself.

00:05:20.720 We saw that clearly when the Premier tried to bring forward changes to a piece of legislation

00:05:26.240 in British Columbia called the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act that he had

00:05:30.980 very serious issues with his caucus colleagues saying, don't you dare touch this. So I certainly

00:05:37.720 don't think there is pushback. In fact, I think there's probably a sentiment in that caucus to

00:05:43.640 say, push things along a little bit faster. If this becomes a reality and then your party ends

00:05:51.020 up in government. Is there any way to roll back this massive giveaway of territory?

00:05:59.840 Well, we have a complicated set of issues in British Columbia. Unlike, you know, the rest of

00:06:05.460 the country, generally speaking, British Columbia was not settled by historic treaties. And, you

00:06:11.860 know, there is a constitutional obligation to look out for the rights of Indigenous people in this

00:06:18.320 in this nation and in this province. And, you know, what our mandate would be is certainly

00:06:23.100 number one, uh, is to include the public in a, in a, let's call it a refreshed relationship with

00:06:29.660 First Nations. One is the one that is balanced and that number two always has the public interest,

00:06:35.820 uh, at the forefront. And I, I certainly see a void in that from this NDP government. And I'll

00:06:41.280 give you one example, Mark, if I may, in the area that we've been discussing in the Northwest,

00:06:46.460 with the Taltan First Nation. It's a very, very mineral-rich region of British Columbia. Copper,

00:06:53.280 gold, several other precious metals, and some big projects up there. The government is signing

00:06:58.080 what are called Section 7 Agreements under the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 0.96

00:07:02.480 Act, which essentially gives the nation permission or a gatekeeper responsibility to allow these

00:07:10.960 projects to go ahead or not. In lieu of that, we are seeing, you know, a mineral tax revenue share

00:07:17.360 between the provincial government and the local First Nation of essentially 50-50. So we struggle

00:07:22.440 to see as opposition, and I think again, this is becoming very clear to the public, how is it

00:07:28.300 balanced and fair and in the public interest when you give half of, you know, a mine's mineral tax

00:07:35.640 revenue to 3,000 people, and the other 5.7 million British Columbians have to share the rest.

00:07:42.440 So these are the kind of things we are going to be reviewing. Again, with the public interest

00:07:48.140 always at the forefront of our decision making. I mean, do you anticipate that there will be an

00:07:53.480 election in the near future? What's your sense of that? That's a good question, Mark. I mean,

00:08:01.220 we're not scheduled for an election until October of 2028. But things could change anytime. I mean,

00:08:06.760 that is squarely in the hands of the government. I'm assuming that they are looking at things very

00:08:13.180 carefully and seeing, you know, if they see an opportunity that this is the best chance they

00:08:18.500 may have to win a second, you know, consecutive mandate here following October 2024, that they

00:08:24.560 may go ahead and do it. But, you know, I certainly don't know. We are always ready at any time to go

00:08:30.560 into an election as the opposition. And that firmly, that decision lands squarely with the

00:08:35.180 government. And what's your sense of how people are thinking about this? I mean, you've been

00:08:43.660 able to take the pulse of people in your area, for instance. Is there a sense that people are

00:08:49.660 feeling that maybe their own property rights are being eroded? I mean, forget the handover of

00:08:55.720 territory, there's a sense that people's homes aren't their homes anymore because there could

00:09:02.140 be a land claim that undermines and pulls the rug out from under them. Do you get that sense?

00:09:08.200 Yeah, well, certainly, Mark, in any riding, you're going to have a mixed perspective. There are

00:09:13.240 people that support the NDP and their policies that are headed down this pathway, and there

00:09:18.380 are those that are strongly opposed to it. I know for me, one thing that is really important that

00:09:24.220 I've shared with my caucus colleagues and delivered to the legislature, when you're

00:09:27.580 talking about private property and the relationship between private property and what's called

00:09:32.600 aboriginal title, I've put a piece of legislation on the, on the floor of the, the legislative

00:09:38.340 assembly in British Columbia that is going to force government to disclose exactly where

00:09:43.760 these claims of aboriginal title either exist before the courts or are under active negotiation

00:09:49.620 with the government because at this moment we don't know and the government is not willing to

00:09:54.480 disclose that. That information is behind lock and key with the Attorney General's office and we

00:09:59.540 certainly don't believe that you know that's fair for British Columbians if somebody had essentially

00:10:04.280 moved here or has a generational piece of property that they don't know if that claim exists. Again

00:10:09.540 that's not to point fingers at anybody but I mean I was at the town hall in Richmond following the

00:10:17.340 Cowichan decision last fall. And the number one issue I heard from residents there is we did not

00:10:24.180 know this was happening. So I think a good starting point here is to have, again, this

00:10:30.300 curtain pulled back so the public can understand where are these active claims happening, and then

00:10:35.780 people can proceed from there as they see fit. All right. Scott McGinnis, thank you so much for

00:10:42.380 coming on the show. We appreciate it. Always a pleasure. Thanks, Mark.

00:10:45.280 If you appreciate journalism, independent journalism, please consider becoming a premier

00:10:50.840 member of Juno News by going to junonews.com backslash straight up. It helps us do what we do.

00:10:58.720 Thank you so much for tuning in. We'll see you next time.

Juno News - August 14, 2026

B.C.’s MASSIVE land giveaway is happening behind closed doors

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