74 Percent of BC Business Association Firms Cutting Investment Due to Uncertainty Over DRIPA

Roughly three-quarters of respondents in a new member survey by the Business Council of B.C. say they are cutting down on investment plans in the province as a result of concern over the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA).

Business Council of B.C. (BCBC) CEO Laura Jones said the findings of the survey demonstrate a major decline in optimism among B.C.’s business community since DRIPA was first put through in 2019.

“There’s been a huge shift since 2019, when the vast majority of people supported DRIPA as a way to advance reconciliation and create the certainty investors need,” Jones said.

“The desire to work with indigenous communities to create prosperity for all remains strong but the message from business leaders is clear: DRIPA isn’t working.”

The survey was carried out April 21–28 of this year after being sent out to 197 BCBC members, of whom 88 responded. Of these, 84 percent of respondents said they represent a business, 10 percent industry associations, and 6 percent post-secondary institutions. The results were released May 6.

The results show that 74 percent of respondents said they are reducing investment plans in B.C. because of uncertainty created by DRIPA, while 73 percent said the law has increased the costs, complexity, time commitment, and uncertainty required to get permits. A further 41 percent said DRIPA has made it harder to obtain financing, while 36 percent said the legislation has caused their sales to fall or grow more slowly than expected and 35 percent said it is reducing their hiring plans in B.C.

None of the respondents said the law had boosted their plans to invest or hire in B.C., and none said it had led to sales growth.

In a section allowing open-ended commentary on the issue, one respondent said the province has become “uninvestable,” while another said “government departments are paralyzed and potential investors are more interested in Alberta power generation project opportunities.”

Of the 88 who responded, 98 percent said they are “very concerned” with how DRIPA is currently affecting B.C. laws and added that it is not creating more investment certainty in the province as the NDP government of former Premier John Horgan had said it would when it was tabled in 2019.

The survey respondents overwhelmingly supported repealing or amending DRIPA, with 59 percent seeking a full repeal and 31 percent supporting amendments, as opposed to 2 percent who support leaving the law as is.

Nonetheless, more than 80 percent of respondents in the BCBC survey said they agree that “finding a path forward on reconciliation with B.C.’s First Nations is important.”

“The business community wants to advance durable reconciliation that protects the public interest, promotes prosperity, and helps close the socioeconomic gaps still experienced by too many Indigenous people,” Jones said. “That’s not in question. What is in question is how to achieve that when the only certainty many investors see in British Columbia right now is uncertainty.”

DRIPA

DRIPA became B.C. law in 2019, pledging to align the province’s laws with the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a non-binding 2007 declaration that promises to uphold indigenous self-determination, consultation, and land rights.

At the time, the B.C. government said the law was intended to “create further certainty for investment and reaffirms B.C. as a world-class destination providing opportunities for business while creating a strong inclusive economy.”

It also said the law would put in place “an additional tool for establishing rules, transparency and accountability when the Province works with Indigenous governing bodies, business and local government on decisions affecting Indigenous rights.”

The law has become increasingly contentious in the past year, however, following a decision by the B.C. Supreme Court in August of last year granting swathes of land in Richmond, B.C., to the Cowichan Nation based on its ancestral territories, and a decision by the B.C. Court of Appeal in December of last year in favour of the Gitxaala Nation.

The Gitxaala decision, which Premier David Eby said creates “huge legal uncertainty,” found that the province’s “free entry” system for staking mineral claims online went against the Crown’s duty to consult First Nations. It also found that B.C. law must consult DRIPA and interpret all provincial law impacting indigenous peoples through DRIPA.

Eby has shifted several times in the provincial government’s intentions with regard to DRIPA, saying the government was planning legislation to pause portions of it before ultimately saying on April 19 that such a bill would not be tabled after strong pushback from First Nations. The province said six months of consultation with indigenous leaders on the future of DRIPA would take place instead.

The B.C. Conservative Party, which is in the process of a leadership race, has five candidates running to lead the party, all of whom say they will work to repeal DRIPA if in power.