Montrose Properties is arguing it shouldn’t have been excluded from legal battle that led to Aboriginal title decision
The B.C. NDP government is supporting a real estate company’s action to reopen the case that last year found the Cowichan Tribes had Aboriginal title over hundreds of hectares of land in Richmond.
Richmond-based Montrose Properties launched the action because it was excluded from the five years of proceedings that led to about 200 hectares of its land being included in the area designated as covered by Aboriginal title.
B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma says the province supports the Montrose application because the company should never have been excluded.
“We’ve been pretty clear in our positions through the Cowichan case that we think that the third-party landowner should have had a hearing,” Sharma told reporters this week.
“We made such an application in that court process. So therefore we are supportive of the Montrose application that’s before the courts.”
The province last fall put up $150 million in financial backing for Montrose and other property owners caught up in the case.
The federal government also supports the application, having urged the court to notify third party landowners that they had a stake in the proceedings.
Montrose seeks to re-open the case to make submissions on the implications of its exclusion from the proceedings and to raise questions about the impact of the designation of Aboriginal title on its fee-simple lands.
The company says it was generally aware of the court action ahead of time but had no idea of the impact on its own holdings until the judgment was published in August.
The Montrose lands house warehouses, a Coca-Cola bottling plant, and other facilities. Company lawyer Robin Junger says the Aboriginal title designation has already affected the status of its holdings and in one case led to a potential deal being put on hold.
“More lenders have said we’re not prepared to lend until this title uncertainty is addressed. A prospective tenant has also expressed concerns,” Junger told Jas Johal on CKNW this week.
“There’s this uncertainty over the land because the court determined that Aboriginal title exists over the same land that Montrose owns fee simple,” he explained.
“And since Montrose was not a party to the 513-day trial, the court declined an application to give Montrose notice. The federal government applied — said Cowichan Tribes should have to give notice to the private property owners in the area. The court declined to grant that.
“So we’re saying that before any final order is issued that would have significant impacts on our client, that the court should hear from our client.”
Read the full article at the Vancouver Sun: B.C. backs company efforts to reopen Cowichan Tribes’ Richmond land case | Vancouver Sun