Indigenous leaders say ‘B.C.’ must do more to implement DRIPA four years after it became law

Indigenous leaders say the province must take more action to implement the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) four years after it became law.

The critique came on the opening day of the eighth annual B.C. Cabinet and First Nations Leaders’ Gathering on Thursday in “Vancouver.” The two-day event is set to see more than 900 one-on-one meetings take place between Indigenous leadership and provincial government representatives. 

More than 190 Indigenous groups registered for the event, according to Premier David Eby, who said that the goal is to exchange dialogue and advance government-to-government relationships.

“That’s a lot of meetings. And you will hear the message that needs to be about implementation of this work,” said Robert Phillips, a Secwépemc political executive with the First Nations Summit from Tsq’escen’ First Nation.

Phillips commended the government for adopting DRIPA, but he said more needs to be done aside from just acknowledging that the legislation exists.

“We don’t have the luxury of time,” he said.

“We’re calling for this change. And we’re not seeing it yet.”

Phillips spoke at a media availability alongside the BC Assembly of First Nations Regional Chief Terry Tegee, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, Premier Eby and Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Minister Murray Rankin.

With the four-year anniversary of the province’s adoption of DRIPA approaching at the end of the month, Teegee said that “we’ve had some measured and limited success in the implementation,” and noted that parties can go a lot further in terms of how to bring the act into motion.

“Certainly, it’s a good point in time to reflect on our successes. But also, reflect on this relationship between our First Nations peoples and the government,” said Tegee, who is a member of Takla Nation.

“The success of that relationship will see the success of the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.”

Phillips noted long-standing issues over treaty negotiations that are decades long, and running into bureaucracy when trying to negotiate for Indigenous children and families, as well as for heritage and conservation efforts.

When the legislative assembly first adopted DRIPA in 2019, they became the first jurisdiction in “Canada” to pass the act into law. Under the act, the province is required to ensure that its current and future laws are in line with the 46 articles set out in the UNDRIP, which recognizes “the urgent need to respect and promote the inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples.”

In consultation with Indigenous communities, the province launched a Declaration Act Action Plan in 2022, which is a set of 89 actions designed to implement and advance the act over a five-year-span.  

The Action Plan is centred around four central themes: Indigenous self-determination and inherent right of self-government; title and rights of Indigenous Peoples; ending Indigenous-specific racism and discrimination; and social, cultural and economic well-being. In their June 2023 report, the province said that 32 actions have been completed or are underway.

Section four of DRIPA outlines that the action plan “must be prepared and implemented in consultation and cooperation with the Indigenous peoples.” But Phillips said that when the province passes the pen to Indigenous groups to detail the next steps in completing an action, they run into government roadblocks.

“We can’t have an action plan on an action plan. We can’t have (this) bureaucracy,” he said.

He called this a time of transformative change, and said the urgency is not only political but social-economical as well. And with the impacts of climate change hitting communities across the province hard over the last few years — from floods to devastating wildfires — he said that now is the time for co-development and working together to implement DRIPA.

“For true reconciliation to happen, we have to be at the table. And I think this is at the time and place now, where we call upon the premier, the cabinet and all of the colleagues that they have in the legislature,” he said.

“We all have to work together to make the change that’s necessary. That transformative change.”

Eby concluded that he agreed with Phillips, acknowledging that there’s “more work to do.”

“We are finding this path together,” he said.