Opinion: The B.C. Conservative leader now wants to kill the B.C.law, citing 'botched' NDP consultations on a new land management system
VICTORIA — The date was Oct. 30, 2019. The setting, the B.C. legislature.
John Rustad, an MLA in the party then known as B.C. Liberals, was speaking in favour of legislation to enshrine the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into B.C. law.
Rustad knew a thing or two about relations and reconciliation with Indigenous people, having served four years as minister of Aboriginal relations and reconciliation in the previous B.C. Liberal government.
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“We were the first jurisdiction in the country that actually had the word ‘reconciliation’ in the ministry’s title,” he explained. “We are a decade or two ahead of where other governments are in their thinking and in their work with First Nations.”
As for his own record as minister in the Christy Clark government, he was proud of having concluded a record number of agreements — 435 of them to be exact — of one kind or another with First Nations.
Enter UNDRIP.
The B.C. Liberals balked at enshrining the principles of the UN Declaration in any capacity, believing it could grant a veto to First Nations over Crown land and resources.
The New Democrats came into office promising to adopt UNDRIP. Now the enabling legislation, known as the Declaration Act, was before the house.
Moreover, the B.C. Liberals were lining up to support the legislation, John Rustad included.
“We talk about UNDRIP as a document advancing reconciliation and human rights, and I think those are important values,” Rustad declared. “It’s just the right thing to do.”
He acknowledged that the legislation was but the first step on the road to greater reconciliation.
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“There’s this new tool that’s being created, this new type of agreement that’s being contemplated for joint decision-making, which also will likely include liabilities as well as responsibilities, jointly shared as they go through.”
He had questions about how all this would play out. “What does it mean in practice? How is that going to be implemented on the ground?”
Still, he was voting for it “because at the end of the day, reconciliation is critical to make sure that everybody in this province has an opportunity to prosper.”
Next day Rustad joined 78 MLAs from all parties in a rare unanimous vote — ‘’nemine contradicente” as they say at the clerk’s table — for the bill supporting the UN Declaration.
That was 4½ years ago.
This week Rustad, now the leader of the B.C. Conservatives, abandoned UNDRIP.
He did so in the context of the NDP government’s botched consultations on legislation to establish joint management of Crown lands with Indigenous nations.
“Conservatives do not support the Eby NDP’s sweeping changes to B.C.’s Land Act,” said Rustad. “It is an assault on your private property rights and our shared rights to use Crown land.”
He now says that reconciliation “cannot mean returning all traditional lands. Returning lands needs to be based on economic reconciliation, which is not about transferring potential from one group to another — but rather adding potential for all British Columbians.
“We must also repeal the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was established for conditions in other countries — not Canada,” said Rustad, overlooking that it is the supporting legislation, not the declaration itself that would have to be repealed.
Rustad’s reversal was eased by an issue he flagged back when he voted for the UNDRIP legislation.
“Lots of people have lots of comments and fear,” he cautioned the government, referring to a concern that the declaration’s promise of “free, prior and informed consent” would amount to a veto for First Nations.
“Government needs to do some work there, so I recommend taking some time to go out and make that effort for the people in the province of B.C.”
The New Democrats have too often failed to do that groundwork, as they themselves now admit in the case of the “consultations,” so-called, on changes to the administration of Crown land.
But neither is this the first time that Rustad has reversed himself on a major issue. He supported the carbon tax through nine years and three provincial election campaigns. Now that public support for the tax has declined, he’d repeal it.
Opportunism? Yes, but it seems to be working for the Conservatives, putting the party in second place behind the New Democrats and ahead of B.C. United in a series of opinion polls.
B.C. United has been critical of the government on the carbon tax and the Crown land consultations as well, though they’ve not gone as far as Rustad.
His hard-line stance against the carbon tax and in favour of access to Crown land seems immediately calculated to appeal to voters in the North.
This week the Conservatives posted online images of a large crowd attending a rally for Larry Neufeld, their candidate in Peace River South.
Even in the last provincial election, when the Conservatives were nowhere in most of the province, their candidates managed a respectable second place finish in the two ridings in the Peace River.
Next time they could be poised for a breakthrough, if Rustad can maintain his populist momentum.
vpalmer@postmedia.com
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