Victoria, BC: While promising to fix DRIPA, the Eby government continues to quietly sign binding land-use agreements that fundamentally alter how Crown land is governed in British Columbia.
On January 15, 2026, the government signed four ministerial orders advancing the Gwa’ni Land Use Planning Project with the ’Na̱mg̱is First Nation, amending the Vancouver Island Land Use Plan and changing how more than 166,000 hectares of Crown land can be accessed, developed, and managed.
“This is Land Act reform by stealth,” said Critic for Indigenous Relations Scott McInnis. “British Columbians already rejected these changes once. In 2024, public backlash forced the NDP to pull its Land Act amendments. Instead of listening, this government has gone underground, signing individual deals behind closed doors, just like we’ve already seen in places such as Squamish, Teẑtan Biny, and across Northwest B.C.”
“The Premier admits DRIPA (the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act) is creating concern throughout the province,” McInnis added. “So why is his government still locking in permanent DRIPA-motivated land-use decisions under that same broken framework?”
“These agreements are being pushed through quietly, announced late on weekends, and wrapped in carefully worded news releases that avoid telling people what is really happening,” McInnis said. “The NDP is deliberately avoiding public scrutiny.”
“This is dividing British Columbians,” McInnis continued. “People are being left to wonder whether land access, development rights, and long-standing property expectations can change overnight, without legislation or public debate.”
Donegal Wilson, Critic for Water, Land, Resource Stewardship and Wildlife Management, said the government’s approach is eroding public trust. “Public lands belong to all British Columbians,” Wilson said. “They should not be governed through a growing patchwork of individual agreements negotiated quietly and announced after the fact.”
“No one knows how many more of these deals are in the works, which regions are next, or how far this approach will go,” Wilson added. “That lack of certainty is exactly why people don’t want to invest, don’t want to expand, and don’t want to engage with a regulatory environment that feels unpredictable and politically driven.”
McInnis said the government must stop signing new land-use agreements until it fixes the framework it admits is failing.
“You cannot say one thing and do another,” McInnis said. “Fix DRIPA first. Bring these decisions into the open. And stop rewriting land governance by stealth. Public lands must stay public.”
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Media Contact:
Francesca Guetchev, Press Secretary
Francesca.Guetchev@leg.bc.ca
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