The BC Conservatives took the opportunity Tuesday to attack the NDP government after Premier David Eby flip-flopped on his decision on Monday not to suspend the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA).
The opposition’s house leader, A’aliya Warbus, accused Eby of creating “chaos” for the province and leaving it in disarray after his actions in the previous weeks.
After First Nations sources had already indicated on Sunday that Eby would step back on his plan to table legislation to suspend the Declaration Act, the premier announced on Monday that — for at least this spring session — he is not going through with the plan.
“The confusion and the frustrations are mounting. They are not subsiding,” Warbus said during Question Period in the B.C. Legislature Building.
“The framework does not seem clear. This government’s approach changes day-to-day.”
She argues that the premier lost any support from his party since he first backtracked on his plan to call for a confidence vote and then announced DRIPA was not going to be suspended after all.
“My question to the premier is simple. Who is running this government?” she said.
Her fellow Conservative MLA Scott McInnis agreed, attacking Eby with some sarcasm, which got some laughs across the benches of the opposition.
“After flip-flopping three times on Sunday over the Declaration Act and what to do, the premier emerged yesterday and said he has plan number six to fix the legal chaos that we are in,” the member from Columbia River-Revelstoke said.
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“He said we will be working with First Nations to find a solution by the fall. Wow, Mr. Speaker, so much detail to digest.”
The BC Conservatives criticize Eby’s move, stating that it does not solve the concerns for property owners, which arose from a couple of court rulings based on DRIPA in the last few months.
In an interview with CityNews, Interim Leader Trevor Halford said that his party favours a complete suspension of the legislation.
“I don’t believe that reconciliation needs to be legislated, but we would do that, and I think that we would be giving British Columbians and First Nations the certainty that they have been calling for,” Halford said.
In his response, the premier chose offense over defense, daring the opposition to make good on their accusations that he lost the support of his slate and call for a confidence vote.
“If the Member wishes to move a motion of confidence in the House, we can test her allegations,” he responded to Warbus.
Additionally, Eby posed the question of what the BC Conservatives would do if they were in charge.
“I would take the hard conversations that we are having with First Nations any day over the conversations the Conservatives are having right now about whether or not to let residential school deniers back into their caucus.”
Eby admitted that the decision not to suspend DRIPA and work out another solution with the First Nations Leadership Council (FNLD) is not as fast as a vote in the Legislative Assembly.
“It is a multiple-month delay, but the opportunity to sit down with First Nations to come up with a durable and lasting solution to what the Court of Appeal decided in the Gitxaala decision,” referring to one of the court decisions ruling that DRIPA has greater force in the province than lower courts had determined.
That decision, along with the Cowichan Tribes ruling, which gave the nation aboriginal title on hundreds of hectares in southeast Richmond, is at the core of the government’s concern for property owners.