Considering virtually all of B.C. is subject to Aboriginal title claims, the growing uncertainty puts the province at a disadvantage with competing jurisdictions. Photo by Marijan Murat/picture alliance via Getty Images

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Thanks to a snap election, British Columbians are going to the polls Oct. 24. In many areas of government policy, but especially land use and property rights, the stakes are high.

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Just one example: due to a B.C. Supreme Court ruling in June, Seabridge Gold, a mineral exploration and development company headquartered in Toronto, faces further consultation with the Tsetsaut Skii km Lax Ha Nation (TSKLH). That could ultimately stop development of the already-approved KSM mine, working one of the largest undeveloped gold-copper deposits in the world, in northwestern British Columbia — this despite 15 years of planning and consultations already. The TSKLH filed a land claim for that part of the province in 2024. Now, the $8-billion mine, which is expected to generate more than $200 million in annual tax revenue for the province and support around 2,600 direct jobs, sits in regulatory limbo.

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This is more bad news for a province seemingly buried in bad news. Investors want certainty to commit money, take on loans and hire workers. Certainty is especially important for major projects such as KSM, which can take years or even decades to develop and where investors depend on predictable rules. Governments obviously can’t eliminate all business risks but they can provide clear and predictable rules. Yet if even approved projects face rule changes and unexpected consultation requirements, the costs and risks can become prohibitive.

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Regarding individual land claims, the provincial government can shift its official understanding of a land claim at any time and court rulings have upheld that consultation must keep pace with those shifts. Consultations with no fixed timeline, cost or scope leave investors guessing how — or whether — a project will survive consultations, with even greater uncertainty in areas where multiple First Nations live and there are overlapping land claims.

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Far from addressing this uncertainty, the B.C. government has made it worse. In 2019, the legislature unanimously passed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), creating a framework for a growing number of agreements between the province and First Nations that effectively grant First Nations veto power over economic development on their claimed lands. And beyond provincial legislation, federal and provincial agreements with First Nations, and other court decisions, have further increased the uncertainty.

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For example, the B.C. and federal governments recognized Aboriginal title over Haida Gwaii, an archipelago off B.C.’s northern coast, shifting control over land-use decisions to the Haida Nation, even though about half of the archipelago’s population is non-Haida. This year, Ottawa signed a comparable agreement with the Musqueam First Nation recognizing Aboriginal title over most of Metro Vancouver, where hundreds of thousands of private businesses and homeowners already hold property titles. And a 2025 B.C. Supreme Court decision found that where Aboriginal title is determined to exist, it is “prior and senior” to other property rights. That decision is under appeal, but it’s not clear how these conflicting rights will be resolved. 

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Considering virtually all of B.C. is subject to Aboriginal title claims, the growing uncertainty puts the province at a disadvantage with competing jurisdictions, including in the United States, where companies and property owners don’t face comparable risks. For a province already struggling with weak business investment, lagging private-sector job creation and stagnating living standards, policy-makers can’t afford to push investment away.

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B.C. needs more private investment in order to create jobs and opportunities and overcome its economic challenges. But as long as uncertainty over land use and property rights continues to deepen, investors will see the province as a greater risk. For the benefit of British Columbians and their families, the next provincial government, whatever its political stripe, must end the province’s land-use and property-rights crisis.

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Julio Mejia and Tegan Hill are analysts with the Fraser Institute.

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