Conservative MLA Scott McInnis Calls on Premier Eby to Clarify Private Property Rights on Haida Gwaii After Covert Court Declaration

BC Govt News -- April 2024 

Conservative MLA Scott McInnis, Deputy Critic for Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, is calling on Premier David Eby to immediately clarify whether private property rights on Haida Gwaii remain valid after his government supported a court declaration embedding Aboriginal title into the Constitution, just weeks after the Cowichan Tribes judgment removed statutory protections for fee-simple land.

In 2024, the Eby government negotiated and legislated recognition of Aboriginal title to 100 per cent of Haida Gwaii, including private property, assuring residents that statutory protections under the Land Title Act would safeguard fee-simple land. 

In August 2025, the Cowichan Tribes judgment ruled that sections 23 and 25 of the Land Title Act do not apply to Aboriginal title, effectively nullifying those protections. 

Despite knowing this, Premier Eby supported a September 4 court declaration that constitutionalized Aboriginal title over private property on Haida Gwaii. The government issued no public notice or statement, and when questioned, Minister Spencer Chandra Herbert admitted he was unaware of the proceeding, while Attorney General Niki Sharma dismissed it as merely “tying up loose ends.”

McInnis stated, “legal experts are openly disputing the Premier’s claim, implied in his so-called Haida Gwaii ‘template,’ that Aboriginal title and fee-simple ownership can coexist on the same land title. The Cowichan judgment warned against exactly that risk, yet this government ignored it and doubled down, writing the contradiction into law on Haida Gwaii.”

As former provincial counsel on Indigenous law Geoffrey Moyse, KC, warned last week, “if the declaration of Aboriginal title on Haida Gwaii has rendered private property unprotected by the Land Title Act”, then “the integrity of private property title may well rest on the word and at the pleasure of the Haida Nation, a scenario that presents as a legal nightmare, not a template to emulate.”

The Conservative Caucus is calling on the government to:

• Clarify immediately whether fee-simple titles on Haida Gwaii remain valid following the September 4 consent order

• Pause negotiating Aboriginal title where claims overlap private property until the government releases a clear and transparent policy and roadmap as the government has lost public confidence.

• Publicly release all ongoing negotiations and litigation involving Aboriginal title or declarations.

Commit to pursuing balanced, transparent treaty negotiations as the sole path to reconciliation.

“The government’s silence has already eroded public trust,” McInnis said. “Transparency is the foundation of reconciliation, and the Eby NDP has replaced it with secrecy.”