The Association for Mineral Exploration (AME) has applied for intervener status in an appeal by First Nations to a court ruling last year on the B.C. Mineral Tenure Act.
The Gitxaala and Ehattesahet First Nations had gone to court over the question of mineral claims in their claimed traditional territories. They argued that the fact mineral claims can be filed without consulting or informing relevant First Nations was a violation of the Crown’s duty to consult and of declarations on the rights of Indigenous people.
The two First Nations sought the following declarations and actions:
- an injunction halting any further mineral claims being granted in their territories without their consent;
- the quashing of several claims already issued; and
- a declaration the Mineral Tenure Act is inconsistent with the United Nations Declaration o the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the B.C. government’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (DRIPA).
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Alan Ross agreed that the province has a duty to consult First Nations even at the earliest stages of mineral exploration – the filing of mineral claims – and gave the B.C. government 18 months to amend the Mineral Tenure Act in a way that satisfies the Crown’s duty to consult.
But Ross declined to quash existing mineral claims or declare the Mineral Tenure Act was inconsistent with DRIPA and UNDRIP, so the Gitxaala and Ehattesahet appealed the ruling. Their appeal is only on the question of the Mineral Tenure Act being inconsistent with DRIPA and UNDRIP, however.
The AME wants a voice in those proceedings, so it has filed for intervener status.
“The outcome of this appeal will alter the current work of explorers, so we are intervening to provide perspective based on our on-the-ground expertise and experience,” said AME CEO Keerit Jutla. "We are advocating for certainty and actively bringing proposed solutions to the table.
"Our goal is to ensure the courts and the province are fully aware of, and carefully consider, the broader implication modernization has for our industry, how international capital markets perceive British Columbia as a place to invest and how an early path toward economic reconciliation may be achieved.”
