B.C.’s MLAs return to the legislature on Monday and the future of the province’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) will be front and centre.

“We want to see a clear path forward,” Scott McInnis, Conservative MLA for Columbia River-Revelstoke and the critic for Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, told Global News.

“We have not seen anything from this government laid out which is a clear plan for what reconciliation looks like for all British Columbians. We see agreements here, agreements there, that’s not helpful.”

DRIPA is a 2019 B.C. law that states the province “must take all measures” to ensure all B.C. laws are consistent with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

However, two recent court decisions on property rights and mining claims have raised concerns among British Columbians about land title rights in the province.

The federal and provincial governments are appealing the B.C. Supreme Court’s ruling in favour of the Quw’utsun Nation, or Cowichan Nation, that found it had “established Aboriginal title” to more than 5.7 square kilometres of land on the Fraser River in Richmond, south of Vancouver.

The City of Richmond has also joined the appeal.

The ruling declared Crown and city titles on the land are “defective and invalid,” and the granting of private titles on it by the government unjustifiably infringed on the Cowichan title.

That has created confusion and anger among homeowners in the affected area, despite the Cowichan Tribes insisting it has no intention of stripping private title holders of their property.

B.C. Premier David Eby said last week that his government is trying its best to work with chiefs across the province to address concerns about the court decisions. They both cited DRIPA and sided with First Nations on mining and property rights, which the provincial government has said isn’t the intention of the law.

One found the provincial mineral claims regime is “inconsistent” with DRIPA, and another recognized the Cowichan Tribes’ Aboriginal title on land along the Fraser River, with titles held by Canada and the City of Richmond deemed “defective and invalid.”

First Nations leaders have called on Eby to leave the bill alone.

A confidential letter was sent on Monday to several B.C. First Nations outlining proposed changes to DRIPA and First Nations were given until Friday to provide initial feedback.

“I can tell you what I think, we don’t amend the UN declaration, and I went into all of the fallacies I think the province has drawn on to justify what they’re doing,” Chief Laxele’wuts’aat Shana Thomas, Hereditary Chief of Lyackson, said.

“Then I offered them a couple of solutions.”

There is no timeline yet on when B.C. residents will see the details of the changes the government is proposing or when they will be tabled in the legislature.

Eby is expected to meet with First Nations leaders to go over their feedback next Wednesday.

–with files from Ben O’Hara-Byrne

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.