Who owns Canada’s natural resources? – Resource World Magazine

FIRST NATIONS have turned the tables as a result of their hard-won legal empowerment in the resources sector. They have asserted their constitutionally protected rights in Canadian courts and have now amassed a significant legal winning streak — to the point that, where new projects are concerned, these rulings might in and of themselves negatively affect resource development. Some proponents even ask, in the final analysis, who actually owns Canada’s natural resources?

The focus of this commentary is British Columbia (west of the Rockies) where resource proponents have been on a steep learning curve in reaching mutually beneficial agreements with First Nations; while the latter strenuously assert rights and monitor impacts on their traditional lands. Project success depends on sorting out a host of complexities: who to deal with, overlapping territories, and (always) the over-arching role of the Crown as resource owner. So the question is how to reconcile First Nation assertions of resource ownership?

Those in the mining industry are aware of the Roger William (Tsilhqot’in) ruling, mid-2014, wherein the Supreme Court of Canada made a Declaration of Aboriginal Title for a large tract in central BC. And a new word was coined immediately thereafter ‘Aboriginal title holder’ which essentially means what it says; henceforth native title holders are in the driver’s seat on a host of issues (including resources) for that specific tract.

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