The only certainty in B.C.’s ongoing Indigenous land claims dispute story is that uncertainty reigns. First Nations groups are asserting a right to what they claim is ancestral territory, private property owners fret about how ironclad their fee simple titles really are, and the provincial government equivocates, offering plenty of platitudes to both sides but little in the way of consistent messaging.
And yet things could get even murkier still.
Back in December, Rob Shaw of Business in Vancouver reported that the Gitxsan house of Wilps ‘Wii K’aax, located near Burns Lake, had told a helicopter business and provincial forestry workers that they could not operate within, or above, their claimed territory without their “free, prior, and informed consent” and that doing so was “dangerous.” Failure to comply would allegedly be “subject to follow-up” under their own authority.
Transport Canada, a federal agency, responded in writing to a query from the Public Land Use Society that Canadian airspace is the exclusive domain of the federal government. According to Transport Canada, no Indigenous group has the legal authority to approve, deny, or restrict air traffic, whether in unceded territory, treaty, or Aboriginal title lands.
However, the events that led to the recognition of Cowichan Aboriginal title in Richmond and other title claims have fueled concern about how far future claims could reach.
While it might have sounded absurd two years ago, it is possible to imagine a scenario where evidence of cooking fires, smoke use for communication, or lookout points could be used to support Aboriginal claims extending over the airspace. While that would certainly be radical, it is far from irrational to prepare for it when claims over flight paths are already being made.
Revenue-sharing agreements with airports are already being inked, with a recent “friendship agreement” signed by the Victoria Airport Authority, which establishes annual payments and even input into airport operations with the W̱SÁNEĆ First Nations.
Read more at The Hub: Indigenous claims on Canadian airspace could be coming next