For a government already under fire for its secretive handling of Indigenous reconciliation, you’d think the BC NDP might approach its outreach to Richmond residents on the Cowichan title ruling with extreme caution. Maybe a consultation plan, a website and some open meetings.

But instead, the province has done the opposite.

On the weekend, it quietly dispatched someone from Premier David Eby’s office to start knocking on Richmond doors with a stack of hastily printed flyers. No notice. No launch. No warning. Just a stranger at your doorstep claiming to be from the premier’s office, and an outreach effort nobody had ever heard of.

It was a mystifying way to address genuine community anxiety after a B.C. Supreme Court decision granted the Cowichan Nation Aboriginal title over nearly 800 acres in Richmond, including more than 140 private homes and properties.

Residents are on edge after a heated city session on the issue last month. Fears centre around the impact to private property rights, mortgages and financing, after the court also ruled Aboriginal title sits above private property rights in the legal hierarchy.

Richmond homeowners have demanded answers from the B.C. government. None were forthcoming........

© BIV