Counter-institutionalizing First Nation–Crown relations in British Columbia

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (8) ◽  
pp. 1602-1621
Author(s):  
Anthony W. Persaud ◽  
Terre Satterfield ◽  
Eliana Macdonald
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
First Nation ◽  
Resource Extraction ◽  
Treaty Rights ◽  
Legal Decisions ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Indigenous Nations ◽  
Industrial Resource

In Canada, the advance of industrial resource extraction has been moderated by a series of key legal decisions that have found that development activities within the traditional territories of Indigenous Nations may infringe on Aboriginal and treaty rights, requiring a duty to consult and potentially accommodate those affected. In British Columbia this duty is primarily satisfied through the Crown referrals process, whereby affected First Nation groups are notified by the Crown regarding potential rights-affecting decisions and are given an opportunity to formulate a response. This form of institutionalized engagement presents an ongoing challenge for First Nation groups who struggle to manage the influx of Crown referrals, as well as a dilemma for those who question its fairness and inherent colonial structure. For others, it is seen as an opportunity to leverage the duty to consult and accommodate in order to strengthen territorial self-governance. In this paper we introduce the idea of counter-institutionalizing and explore the conditions under which the Crown referrals process is being redrawn to better address, and not, the ability of First Nation groups to improve territorial self-governance and the trade-offs involved.

scholarly journals Supreme Court of Canada Cases Strengthen Argument for Municipal Obligation to Discharge Duty to Consult: Time to Put Neskonlith to Rest

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela D’Elia Decembrini ◽  
Shin Imai
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Provincial Government ◽  
First Nation ◽  
Shopping Mall ◽  
Supreme Court Of Canada ◽  
Treaty Rights ◽  
Indigenous Group ◽  
The City ◽  
Court Of Appeal

Can municipalities infringe Aboriginal or treaty rights without consulting the affected Indigenous group? In Neskonlith Indian Band v. Salmon Arm (City), the British Columbia Court of Appeal answered this question in the affirmative, finding that the city of Salmon Arm did not need to consult the Neskonlith First Nation about impacts from the construction of a shopping mall. In what was technically obiter dicta, the Court permitted the municipal project to proceed, and told the First Nation that its only recourse was to complain to the provincial government in a separate proceeding.

scholarly journals Water Use Challenges to Oil and Gas Developments

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wally Braul ◽  
Mike Theroux ◽  
Robbie Armfield
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Civil Litigation ◽  
First Nation ◽  
Public Concern ◽  
Treaty Rights ◽  
Single Strategy ◽  
The Media

As public concern over fracking gains increased prominence in the media, litigation concerning the practice is starting to appear before Canadian courts. The litigation thus far has focused largely on water use and its associated licensing regimes, as well as Aboriginal treaty rights. Opponents of fracking have employed diverse strategies to combat the practice. Aside from the Environmental Appeal Board case involving the Fort Nelson First Nation, the British Columbia government and Nexen, no single strategy has proved particularly successful, though the litigation remains in its infancy. This article profiles the emerging Canadian litigation, considering it alongside the developing American civil litigation.

Dynamics of a grizzly bear population during a period of industrial resource extraction. I. Density and age–sex composition

1989 ◽  
Vol 67 (8) ◽  
pp. 1856-1860 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce N. McLellan
Keyword(s):  
Outdoor Recreation ◽  
Ursus Arctos ◽  
Timber Harvest ◽  
Resource Extraction ◽  
Grizzly Bear ◽  
Adult Males ◽  
Sex Composition ◽  
Adult Females ◽  
Rate Of Increase ◽  
Industrial Resource

The characteristics of a grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) population in southeastern British Columbia were studied between 1979 and 1986, a period of timber harvest, gas exploration, and outdoor recreation, including grizzly hunting. I investigated the hypothesis that collectively these activities were detrimental to the grizzly population. I predicted a low density of bears compared with other interior populations and (or) a negative rate of increase. The sex ratio of cubs and yearlings captured was 50:50 and they represented 21.5 and 17.5% of the population, respectively. Although more adult males than adult females were captured, I estimated that there were more adult females than males in the population. I used two methods of population estimation and assumed saturation trapping : one method was based on home range characteristics and the other on the proportion of aerial locations in the study area. The average estimated bear density was 6.4/100 km2, which was high for an interior population, and increased from approximately 5.7/100 km2 in 1981 to 8.0/100 km2 in 1986, for an average annual observed rate of increase of r = 0.07.

Dynamics of a grizzly bear population during a period of industrial resource extraction. III. Natality and rate of increase

1989 ◽  
Vol 67 (8) ◽  
pp. 1865-1868 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce N. McLellan
Keyword(s):  
Ursus Arctos ◽  
Detrimental Effect ◽  
Timber Harvest ◽  
Reproductive Rate ◽  
Easy Access ◽  
Resource Extraction ◽  
Grizzly Bear ◽  
Reproductive Parameters ◽  
Rate Of Increase ◽  
Industrial Resource

Reproductive parameters and rate of increase were estimated for a grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) population in southeastern British Columbia during a period of timber harvest and gas exploration, 1979–1987.I hypothesized that these activities would be detrimental to the population and predicted a negative rate of increase. There was an average of 2.26 cubs in 31 litters. The average of nine interbirth intervals was 2.67 years, and the average age at which five females produced their first litter was 6 years. The population's annual reproductive rate calculated by three methods averaged 0.86 cubs per adult female. By iteration of the Lotka equation, the best estimate of the exponential rate of increase was 0.081. Industrial activities did not appear to have a significant detrimental effect on the grizzly bear population in the Flathead Valley during the period of study but the roads built provided easy access for hunters and poachers.

Species variability in growth response to light across climatic regions in northwestern British Columbia

1998 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 871-886 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine F Wright ◽  
K Dave Coates ◽  
Charles D Canham ◽  
Paula Bartemucci
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Shade Tolerance ◽  
Growth Response ◽  
High Light ◽  
Low Light ◽  
Climatic Regions ◽  
Light Levels ◽  
Tolerant Species ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Shade Tolerant Species

We characterize variation in radial and height growth of saplings of 11 tree species across a range of light levels in boreal, sub-boreal, subalpine, and temperate forests of northwestern British Columbia. Shade-tolerant species had the greatest response to an increase in light at low-light levels but had low asymptotic growth at high light. Shade-intolerant species had weaker responses to increases at low light but had the highest growth rates at high light. The effects of climate on intraspecific variation in sapling response to light were also related to shade tolerance: across different climatic regions, the most shade-tolerant species varied in their response to low-light but not high light, while shade-intolerant species varied only in their high-light growth. Species with intermediate shade tolerance varied both their amplitude of growth at high light and the slope of the growth response at low light. Despite the interspecific trade-offs between high- and low-light growth, there was a striking degree of overlap in the light response curves for the component species in virtually all of the climatic regions. Successional dynamics in these forests appear to be more strongly governed by interspecific variation in sapling survival than growth.

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