https://globalnews.ca/news/11502751/cowichan-land-title-case-bc-richmond-explainer/
https://www.castanetkamloops.net/news/Kamloops/584219/Leader-of-upstart-provincial-party-visits-Kamloops-calls-for-end-to-Aboriginal-title-rights
A friend in kamloops was telling me that he's not sure he has a valid title on his property in the near future and this was the first I've heard about this. Did a little reading and I'm confused what to believe.
Would this actually change property rights in canada or is this just alarmist? Hear a lot of opinions claiming that messing with property rights is a slippery slope with unintended consequences even though this case is well intentioned.
Are owners right in thinking that their properties would be rendered unsellable? Why are owners saying they should stop paying property taxes now?
While it doesn't appear that the cowichan tribe is interested in booting people out of their homes, could they, if they wanted to? Who would be responsible for paying out those owners if anyone?
Why is cowichan band entitled to land in richmond, because they fished there 150 years ago? What about the band who lives there presently? My understanding is that the richmond location was the cowichan "summer village" and that they went back to the island during the colder months.
It feels like climate crisis in a way, where people are wanting change only until it personally affects them, and I can't help but see it with reconciliation too. I also wonder that if this could have the effect of undoing any progress so far on reconciliation. The average tim hortons canadian isn't going to fully grasp the situation and it's just going to result in racism I'm thinking, the more traction this gets.
My potentially incorrect hot take on it is that the proposed indigenous land rights are completely compatible with regular home ownership and property rights; where they conflict is more with surveyor’s rights and municipal rights.
Meaning, the property can still be bought and sold, but they’d have more control over zoning and resource extraction/management.
Did you know that on property you own, if someone else has a mineral claim staked, they currently have the right to access the land under your home to extract the minerals?
And did you know that the government, at any level, can decide to re-zone your property out from under you for whatever purpose it deems fit, resulting in a property that couldn’t be sold for current use?
The new land rights would mean that these types of actions could no longer happen unilaterally but would need a review by a panel set up by the local indigenous people before it could go ahead.
Essentially, they get to have some control back about HOW the land is used that they managed for thousands of years — land management rights that they never gave up when settlers claimed the land for themselves and began arbitrarily deciding what could be done with it.
If someone has more details, please correct me where I’m wrong here.
[edit] Looks like in these cases, I’m partly wrong — they also want control over private land sale in the outlined regions. This still needs to be worked out.
It’s also worth pointing out that the Cowichan are claiming these rights to land that is currently privately owned by the Musqueam AND is also their traditional territory. So there’s lots here to still figure out, and it will likely be in the courts for years to come, depressing property values all the while.
Once this precedent is sorted out by the supreme courts, we’re likely going to see similar cases all across Canada.
On the up side, this might be the solution to the housing crisis — but modern property owners may end up losing some of their traditional rights.