by Rob Shaw
The head of B.C.’s Declaration Act Secretariat has left government on the eve of Premier David Eby’s move to change the landmark law to address court rulings that threaten private property rights.
Jessica Wood, the province’s first Indigenous deputy minister, announced late last week she was departing the secretariat.
“The Declaration Act was the first legislation in Canada to require consideration and alignment of provincial law with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in consultation and cooperation with Indigenous Peoples,” Wood said in a post on LinkedIn.
“Developing this legislation and its first Action Plan … was more than policy work. It was about working together on a path to dignity, recognition, and reshaping the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the Crown in tangible ways.”
Wood had been involved in helping craft the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) in 2019 before overseeing the secretariat charged with ensuring B.C.’s laws are slowly brought into compliance with that act.
Her departure comes as the NDP government prepares to amend DRIPA this session, in response to court rulings that have led to a public backlash over its impact on other laws and private property rights.
It also comes as Eby hires Doug Caul, a recently retired deputy minister, to a consulting contract valued at $250,000 to give advice on how to change DRIPA.
First Nations, however, strenuously object to the amendments.
More than 100 Indigenous leaders have signed an open letter to the premier saying the changes are based on fear, will plunge the province backwards into uncertainty and are undoing years of progress that began with the passage of DRIPA in 2019.
“We stand united in our opposition to any amendments to gut the Declaration Act, which seeks to affirm and protect our rights,” Terry Teegee, B.C. Assembly of First Nations regional chief, said last month.
The changes to DRIPA are contentious even within the BC NDP itself. The party has considered adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to be a foundational part of its government since taking office in 2017.
