Eby announces mining development plan ‘not connected’ to Bill 15

The B.C. government announced Monday its plan to rapidly expand mining and improve trading of critical metals and minerals amid controversy over a bill to fast track major infrastructure projects.

Speaking in Vancouver, Premier David Eby described his government’s approach to mining development in the province’s northwest, emphasizing economic growth first, reconciliation with First Nations second, and environmental conservation third.

Eby says government will spend the next 12 months working to deliver “certainty for investment” of $30 billion in the northwest and to “create a template” for the use of another $20 billion in the rest of the province.

In indistinct terms, the premier promised that collaboration with First Nations will make a new path for development.

“In the early days, mining was often marked by labour strife, environmental degradation, conflict with First Nations. We’ve come a long way since then. Today, B.C., northwest, close to the Alaska and Yukon border has a generational opportunity to build lasting prosperity for the province and the country, in partnership with First Nations to protect vital land and water through conservation and to be a central part of seizing B.C. economic destiny in a way that makes life better for the entire country,” said Eby.

In recent weeks, Eby and the BC NDP have come under fire and sharp criticism from Indigenous leaders including the First Nations Leadership Council about Bill 15, which proposes to speed up public and private infrastructure projects as a response to American tariffs.

Eby insisted that the announcement Monday has “no connection” to Bill 15, but is instead about seizing an opportunity to partner with nations in the northwest of B.C. while their interests are aligned.

Citing land use and environmental concerns, some Indigenous leaders have threatened legal action if the governing party fails to “kill the bill” without engaging with First Nations on potential amendments.

Eby admitted that the province had not engaged with those groups as it “should have.”

He says B.C. has committed to engage with the First Nation Leadership Council on the development of regulations and says he understands why there is a lack of trust between nations and provincial government.

“Anytime a government has said we want to do projects faster, it’s always come at the expense of First Nations. And this announcement, saying ‘We want to move faster for the prosperity of the province, for British Columbians who need those good paying jobs, for the prosperity of the whole country, and we want to do it in partnership with First Nations by realizing the vision these nations have in the northwest’ — It’s a revolutionary and really important change, and one that will assist us in addressing an issue that has challenged British Columbia for a long time: which is that people say, ‘Well, you know, it takes too long to get anything done there.’ That is independent of our government. That’s something people have been saying about British Columbia for a long time,” said Eby.

“And so if we’re able to show this new path forward, if we’re able to deliver these tens of billions of dollars in capital investment, these jobs, this prosperity for communities in the northwest, but also the whole province in the country, I think that we’ll have a model that that other provinces can look at in terms of their own mining aspirations.”

—With files from The Canadian Press