Eby Announces First Nations Mining Partnerships in BC’s Northwest

In an announcement Monday British Columbia Premier David Eby signalled the intention to attract as much as $30 billion in mining investment to the northwest of the province by working in partnership with First Nations.

“We’re here today to talk about our shared vision to unlock B.C.’s incredible potential in critical metals and minerals,” Eby said in Vancouver accompanied by leaders of the Tahltan Central Government, the Taku River Tlingit First Nation and the Daylu Dena Council.

“It’s important to recognize that high environmental standards, partnerships with First Nations, are not at odds with resource development,” Eby said. “Here in B.C., economic development, conservation of precious water and land, and partnership with First Nations go together.”

While there were few specifics, the announcement included pledges to work to complete consent-based agreements with First Nations; speed up permitting; extend the electricity grid to serve mines; create a quicker process to protect lands and watersheds; invest in social well-being and physical infrastructure in northern communities; seek new trade agreements along with the federal government and other provinces; and align approval processes with the federal government.

Mining and Critical Minerals Minister Jagrup Brar cited the Tahltan Nation’s agreement on the development of the Red Chris open-pit copper and gold mine as an example of what the government would like to do more of.

“This partnership will become a model for others across the province and the country and it will serve us as a springboard for seizing one of the biggest economic opportunities in B.C.’s history,” he said.

The announcement came as the government is under fire from First Nations leaders, the Union of BC Municipalities and environmental advocates who want stopped two bills aimed at accelerating the approvals of clean energy and other infrastructure projects the government deems provincially significant.

With the government using time allocation, Bill 15, the Infrastructure Projects Act, and Bill 14, the Renewable Energy Projects (Streamlined Permitting) Act, are expected to pass Wednesday.

“There’s no connection between Bill 15 and today’s announcement,” Eby told reporters, mentioning the bill that’s drawn the most criticism. “In theory, down the road, if we reach some kind of agreement with the nations in the northwest that there was a tool created by Bill 15 that we agree would be an appropriate one to use, then perhaps, but that’s quite speculative.”

He later added, “Even if Bill 15 didn’t exist, we’d still be doing this announcement today.”

In his remarks, Eby also referred to the uncertainty created by recent actions by the United States, Russia and China. “Our province will be the economic engine of the new Canada that emerges from this moment of global instability,” he said.

Conservative Party of BC Leader John Rustad said the government can’t be trusted to accelerate projects when it has added significantly to the delays many face.

“They’ve spent eight years building up the process for going through resource projects like mining,” he said. “The premier now says he has a plan to develop a plan to address this. Once again, how do you have any trust in a premier that has spent all this time building up these barriers?”

There are mines proposed for all over the province that are waiting to be built, said Rustad. “The problem we have had are these layers of bureaucracy and process and delays the NDP has put into place over eight years. He doesn’t seem to understand that he is the problem.”

Eby acknowledged that for many projects the missing element has been government support.

“This will be an intense focus for us at the provincial level,” he said. “We’re hoping to pull in the federal government as well so we can make this land-use planning real and deliver the certainty for process and for major projects that are proposed in the region that are going to really create a much higher standard of living for everyone in the region as well as the province.”

B.C. has a generational opportunity to build prosperity in partnership with First Nations while delivering on its promises for conservation, Eby said. “We cannot realize our full potential as a province on the timelines that we want without First Nations as full partners at the table.”