Permission shouldn’t be radical. It's time to rethink mining in BC |
A few years ago, former Chief Bev Sellars of the Xatśūll First Nation staked a mineral claim on then-Minister Bill Bennett’s Kelowna property. In under an hour, she registered for a free miner’s certificate for $25, went online, and staked a claim for an additional $105—all with no requirement to inform the landowner or seek permission for subsurface rights. The action exposed the absurdity of a system in which the mineral exploration industry requires no permission from private landowners, recreation and tourism tenure holders, or Indigenous Peoples to be granted priority use of the land.
The “free entry” system under B.C.’s Mineral Tenure Act (MTA) is among the province’s most colonial laws, privileging mineral exploration over virtually all other land uses. On December 5, the BC Court of Appeal issued a landmark decision affirming that the MTA is inconsistent with the province’s human rights obligations under Article 32 (2) of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
The ruling strikes at the heart of B.C.’s mineral........