The B.C. government is making another attempt to ease concerns of Richmond residents who are fearful about the impact of the Cowichan land ruling.
The premier’s office has dispatched a staff member to Richmond to provide information to residents.
It said a door-knocking campaign is underway and some constituents have received letters.
“A constituent reached out to me and said that they had received a letter,” Steve Kooner, MLA for Richmond-Queensborough and the official Opposition critic for attorney general, told Global News.
“I didn’t know anything about this actual physical letter that has been going around. And it seems that selective people are being given this letter because there’s been a couple of constituents that have told me that they have received this letter, and there’s been a couple that have told me that they haven’t received it yet.”
Kooner said that as the local MLA, he was surprised that he had not heard about the initiative.
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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.
Kooner said he would like to see the premier’s office put forward solutions for affected residents.
“This letter now talks about, is asking constituents how may your property be affected?” he said.
“Is it affecting your mortgage? Is it affecting your financing? So now, in essence, the premier’s office is acknowledging there may be issues related to private property rights.”
A leading expert on Aboriginal land issues says private property owners in B.C. should be concerned about the Cowichan land title court ruling.
“A precedent that will flow from this case is that sections 23 and 25 of the Land Title Act do not apply to Aboriginal title,” Tom Isaac with Cassels Aboriginal Law Group told Global News.
“Those are not my words — those are the judge’s words, paragraph 3,551. So anyone suggesting this is about 800 acres, it’s simply not the full story on the decision.”
The case could also set a precedent for Indigenous land claims in other parts of Canada: an Algonquin First Nation filed a similar title claim in Quebec Superior Court in October.
In a statement to Global News, the premier’s office said, “the aim is to provide residents and business owners with a contact who is available to provide information and for the province to hear directly from people about any possible impacts resulting from the decision.”
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