Dr. Caroline Elliott is a senior fellow with the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy, sits on the board of B.C.’s Public Land Use Society and is a co-founder of Without Diminishment.

A public comment period on proposed changes to B.C.’s heritage conservation legislation came to a close last week and submissions from the business community are unanimous: the radical changes will be a disaster for the province.

Business groups across multiple sectors warn of severe adverse consequences for public and private land development, investor certainty, the economy, and the democratic process if the Heritage Conservation Act changes are implemented. The purpose of the existing Heritage Conservation Act (HCA) is to conserve historical, cultural and archeological sites in B.C.

The changes proposed by what the BC NDP government calls the HCA “transformation project” will expand Indigenous decision-making and enforcement over protected sites, and broadening the definition of what constitutes a heritage site.

The recommendations include “formalizing a process for seeking First Nations’ consent on permitting decisions,” expanding the definition of heritage “to include a broader spectrum of First Nations values, including intangible heritage values,” enabling a “suite of decision-making agreement types” including “consent-based decision-making agreements for Crown land,” and an expanded scope for “operational agreements” that will apply to both Crown and private land.

The changes are ostensibly aimed at bringing the legislation in line with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and to “improve how the HCA is implemented in a way that benefits all people in B.C.”

Objectives also include making permitting faster and easier, allowing quicker rebuilds after natural disasters, and improving transparency and access to information.

However, submissions from the business community during public engagement this fall reveal a consistent skepticism about government claims that the changes will achieve faster and easier permitting. Business participants were also concerned the sweeping changes will exacerbate an already uncertain investment climate, erode the ability of decision-makers to act in the broader public interest, and negatively impact private property rights.

From a more general economic perspective, the Association for Mineral Exploration, representing over 6,000 members engaged in mineral exploration and development, explained that “there is a perception from global investors that the B.C. government is not in charge of the land base and this change will play into that narrative, further eroding investor certainty.”

Read the article at Northern Beat: Proposed changes to heritage act spell disaster, say business groups – Northern Beat