Halfway River First Nation secures decision-making authority in landscape planning

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Halfway River First Nation (HRFN) has announced that the details about its landscape planning pilot with the provincial government has been finalized.

According to a release on Friday from the First Nation, the agreement “reaffirms Halfway River’s decision-making authority over our territory” as it relates to resource development.

The case which was filed in the BC Supreme Court by HRFN last summer stemmed from Blueberry River First Nations agreement with the Eby government which ventured deeply into HRFN’s territory of 34,000 hectares.

Christopher Devlin, legal representative for HRFN says the ratifying of the agreement means HRFN has “an equal voice,” in terms of decision making and planning for energy projects.

“It’s a big win because it means that they now have the same decision-making and planning,” said Devlin.  “Everybody on the province’s side and halfway side was highly motivated to to address the issues raised by the lawsuit.”

“The province recognized that they had that Halfway had been aggrieved by the agreement, and the province came to the table highly motivated to fix that wrong.”

According to Devlin, negotiations went “smoothly.”  He adds that violation of the agreement could lead to further legal proceedings against the province, but he doesn’t anticipate this outcome.

“The court decision is an enduring decision. The HRFN Settlement Agreement is supposed to run with Treaty 8 forever, and this implementation agreement is supposed to run as long as the Blueberry agreement

The agreement highlights several commitments within HRFN’s area, which include:

• Consent on all land use plants within the First Nation’s territory; 
• New oil and gas development must be consistent with HRFN’s land use agreement or consent; 
• protections will not be waived without consent; no conversion of Crown forest to fee simple lands without HRFN consent; 
• Commercial forestry and aerial herbicides are prohibited.

HRFN concludes the statement by saying that “the settlement agreement implements and supports the promises of Treaty 8, including Halfway River’s right to continue our way of life.”

Friday’s announcement is part of an agreement announced in January 2023, with talks extending back to 2017.

An initial agreement between the parties was announced by the government back in June. 

Further details about the agreement can be seen here.