Overlapping claims are behind protests from First Nations against two treaties

VICTORIA — A coalition of First Nations say they are prepared to block major projects and take legal action if British Columbia does not pause two treaties to resolve overlapping territorial claims.

Politicians in Victoria are debating legislation to implement treaties with Kitselas First Nation in northwestern B.C., and the K’omoks First Nations on Vancouver Island, but both agreements face opposition from neighbouring nations.

Representatives from the Nine Allied Tribes, the Lax Kw’alaams Band near Terrace, and the Wei Wai Kum First Nation on Vancouver Island said Tuesday that the government had not consulted with them about the agreements that were unveiled last week.

Don Wesley of the Nine Allied Tribes said affected First Nations would “shut down the corridors that feed the Port of Prince Rupert” and close Highway 16, if the government did not take action.

Garry Reece, elected mayor of the Lax Kw’alaams First Nation, said he did not oppose the treaty process, but he could not agree with an agreement that reached into their territory.

“We are going to stop major projects if we have,” Reece said. “We are going to do everything we can, so this treaty doesn’t go through.”

Spencer Chandra Herbert, B.C.’s Minister of Indigenous Relations, said the issue of overlapping claims was not new and he encouraged all sides to have further conversations to resolve their issues.

“I know some of those conversations are ongoing,” he said.

Chris Roberts, elected chief councillor of the Wei Wai Kum First Nation, said the government should pause the K’omoks Treaty Act for at least six months to give his nation a chance to resolve its concerns.

Roberts said the treaty with the K’omoks created the opposite of certainty and his people were “growing restless and concerned about the future.”

He said that the province needed treaties. “But they have to be done properly, and there is a fatal flaw with this treaty,” he said. “(It) doesn’t have a proper recognition of the overlapping claims with the K’omoks First Nation.”

The K’omoks Treaty Act and the Kitselas Treaty Act were tabled last week on back-to-back days after years of negotiations.

Conservative MLA Scott McInnis, critic for Indigenous relations and reconciliation, said overlap happens with treaties.

But government was pushing ahead with treaties in the context of the Cowichan Tribes ruling on Aboriginal title, and its impact on the legal environment, he said.

The August 2025 ruling confirming the tribes hold Aboriginal title on land by the Fraser River in Richmond, B.C., has led to concerns about its impact on private property ownership and is being appealed by the B.C. government and other parties.

What happens when the Wei Wai Kum First Nation can prove “ongoing and exclusive” occupation in K’omoks First Nation treaty land, McInnis asked. “What the heck are we going to do with that?”

That possibility should be grounds to pause the provincial implementation of the two recent treaties, McInnes said.

But the government, he said, is not willing to do that. “They desperately need a win on the reconciliation file,” he said. “The process is a little bit rushed and flawed.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 21, 2026.

Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press