Opposition moves reasoned amendment on K’ómoks Treaty Act, calls for committee study of overlap and process concerns

IMAGE CREDIT -- Premier David Eby (Facebook)

Yesterday (May 20th) the Official Opposition attempted to move a reasoned amendment to the second reading of Bill 20, the K'ómoks Treaty Act, 2026, that would refer the subject matter to the Select Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs before the Legislature proceeded further. The amendment was voted down by the NDP government.  

The amendment asks the House to pause the treaty ratification until the committee has examined, in public, overlap issues raised by neighbouring First Nations, the substantive changes the government made between the publicly-released Agreement-in-Principle and the final Treaty, and the implications for British Columbians.  

"Modern treaties are supposed to bring certainty. That is the whole point," said Scott McInnis, MLA for Columbia River Revelstoke and Official Opposition Critic for Indigenous Relations. 

“This Treaty inserts UNDRIP as an authoritative source for its own interpretation, locks in consent-based decision-making, and does it on top of overlapping claims that neighbouring First Nations say have never been resolved. That is a recipe for legal uncertainty for years to come — and legal uncertainty in this province means investment frozen, projects stalled, and jobs lost."

“The government has had this Treaty in front of it for years. We have had it for weeks," said McInnis. 

"There are documented overlap concerns from neighbouring nations. There are co-management provisions inserted at Stage Five that appear in no prior Canadian treaty and were not in the Agreement-in-Principle the public was consulted on. The standing committee exists for exactly this work."

"Reconciliation has to be built to last, and it needs to reach a conclusion," said John Rustad, MLA for Nechako Lakes and Joint-Indigenous Relations Critic. 

"A treaty that leaves neighbouring First Nations with unresolved overlap claims isn't a finished agreement; it's the next decade of litigation waiting to happen. The communities, the families and the businesses living within this territory deserve certainty, and so does K'ómoks. Our amendment asked the government to do the work now, in public, through the committee, so that what comes out the other side is durable. That is what real reconciliation looks like."