iN DISCUSSION: Who do we believe when it comes to DRIPA impacts in BC?

This is where cold hard facts give way to the hottest of takes, mostly mine I suppose. I’m the editor, Marshall Jones.

Want to include yours? Listen, this isn’t the comment section, this isn’t social media. Discussion and debate requires context and a wee bit of bravery — we need your name and where you’re writing from. Include it in your account or email me anytime.

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Anyone know the true implications of DRIPA?

I’m in a really uncomfortable spot as a British Columbian.

I have no idea of the true implications of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act and I don’t know who to believe.

My premier, David Eby, seemed near panic after two court rulings shattered our collective realities. One court interpreted that Act to invalidate the entire mineral claims system in the province because it doesn’t allow consultation with First Nations. 

Another ruling, at best, throws doubt on everything we thought we knew about private property by superseding Crown grants with Aboriginal title. 

Eby went from calling the impact of the rulings “chaos” and telling homeowners they are “right to be worried” even staking his job and government for a moment on repealing or changing the declaration.

A few weeks later, he backpedalled hard three times, now landing on: he “move(d) off confidently in the wrong direction.”

Um… what? Where does that leave us? He now says he needs to negotiate changes with the province’s 200-some First Nations. 

Sounds like that might take some time, which also, might be the real problem. Everyone else should just wait patiently, I guess? It’s becoming the provincial motto: Please Hold.

I don’t know what to believe from Eby. First Nations and their lawyers and proxies are doing their best to assure us all is fine, of course. Meanwhile, Geoffrey Moyse has thoughts.

The implications are potentially seismic. How are you interpreting this? Email me at mjones@infonews.ca.

Mj

Marshall Jones

Managing Editor

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Fight to live in tiny homes is BC in nutshell

You probably don’t live in an RV or in a tiny home so maybe this thread we keep tugging on doesn’t interest you.

To me, it’s kind of BC in a nutshell.

We insist on being the most expensive province in the country to live in. Our building codes and tax structures all but guarantee it and they’re locking out the alternatives. We have covered many stories of people being denied being able to live in RVs on their own land at the local level. 

Now it’s clear they won’t allow tiny homes, either. 

You remember those? The ones the BC government insisted were being built to code for homeless people for free? 

That appears to be their own secret code because no one else can find it, certainly can’t seem to use it on their own land.

Between municipal and provincial governments, we seem to demand you either rent, pay outrageously for ownership, taxes and fees or live in a tent. 

How about you? Email me at mjones@infonews.ca.

Mj

Marshall Jones

Managing Editor

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Tara Armstrong Recall Countdown

Tara Armstrong is currently the MLA for Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream. She rode the coattails of the BC Conservative Party, got elected, then rejected and left the party to serve as an Independent within weeks because the Conservatives were too left wing. Now she gets to claim that her riding supports her.

Elections BC says you can recall an MLA if 40% of eligible voters in the riding sign a recall petition — but not for the first 18 months after an election. Some people started an online petition calling for a byelection once she made a shift to independent, then got herself a raise by forming her own party, but it won’t mean anything until the countdown clock hits zero.

So let the countdown begin!

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