Ep. 005: Understanding First Nations Land Claims

Guest: Gordon Gibson, Political Columnist

Gordon Gibson spells out the ramifications of the Tsilhqot’in Land Claim judgement handed down by the Supreme Court in June.

Gibson says the world as we know in BC it has changed. He points out the ruling in essence means companies wishing to do business in BC will need to navigate a mix of regulatory bodies and then obtain consent from the First Nation associated with the land.

Gibson says, it becomes complicated with you consider the Tsilhqot’in Nation is the collective of six bands that are not governed by the Nation. Gibson says the decision has opened many questions, “governments and companies are downplaying these questions because they don’t want to give rise to uncertainty, and I’m sorry to be pointing this out there is a huge amount of uncertainty.”