The president of the Tahltan Central Government urged British Columbia on Tuesday not to weaken its Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, speaking at the signing of a mineral tax revenue-sharing agreement for the Eskay Creek mine — a project approved through the first consent-based assessment held under that law.
‘Not a good idea to take anything away’
Kerry Carlick, president of the Tahltan Central Government, delivered the message at an event in Vancouver where he co-signed the revenue-sharing agreement with Deputy Premier Niki Sharma. He said it is not a “good idea to take anything away from DRIPA,” adding that “if anything, it should be strengthened.”
The timing gave his words their edge. The provincial government has said it plans to revise DRIPA following a series of court rulings on Aboriginal title, including decisions that have unsettled the government over how the declaration interacts with private property and provincial law. Sharma said the proposed amendments will respond specifically to those decisions, insisting they “won’t be about stepping back” from DRIPA, but about “unlocking the potential of DRIPA without leading us back to the courts.”
A first-of-its-kind approval
The ceremony came a day after the province issued an environmental assessment certificate to Eskay Creek Mining Ltd., a subsidiary of Skeena Gold+Silver, to restart gold and silver mining at the former Eskay Creek mine in Tahltan territory, about 83 kilometres northwest of Stewart.
The province’s Environmental Assessment Office carried out a collaborative assessment with the Tahltan Central Government — the first ever guided by a consent agreement, made under Section 7 of DRIPA and the Environmental Assessment Act. The Tahltan board of directors provided formal notice of Tahltan consent for the project, and ministers Tamara Davidson and Jagrup Brar imposed 38 legally binding conditions, many co-developed with the Tahltan, covering fish and air quality monitoring and an ongoing Tahltan role in compliance through the life of the mine.
The agreement signed Tuesday adds the financial piece: a share of the mineral tax revenue from the mine, flowing government-to-government over its life. The province projects the project will generate about 1,000 jobs during construction and more than 770 at peak operations, with capital spending of about $713 million and roughly $1.2 billion in provincial revenues. The mine must be substantially started by 2036.
A law being tested from both sides
DRIPA, passed in 2019, commits B.C. to align its laws with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Eskay Creek consent process was its flagship proof of concept — hailed in 2022 as the first consent-based agreement of its kind in Canada.
That is what makes the current moment delicate. The same week the province celebrated DRIPA’s biggest success, it was also preparing to amend it, under pressure from court decisions — including the Cowichan Tribes title ruling and the Gitxaala decision on mineral claims — that ministers argue have created legal uncertainty. Carlick’s message, delivered beside the deputy premier, was that the Eskay Creek experience points the other way: the law worked as designed, and the answer is to build on it rather than trim it back.
