The Williams decision, the historic land title case involving the Tsilhqott’in National Government, came up at the Quesnel and District Chamber of Commerce’s annual general meeting this afternoon.
John Winter, the outgoing BC Chamber of Commerce President, was the guest speaker.
He says the decision created the opportunity to create a framework for the three main proponents involved in the use of the land…First Nations, the crown and industry…
“and the opportunity where the crown has to identify in advance what they consider to be issues of public interest or public interest rights so they have the opportunity to override any claim by first nations for the use of land if they find a justification exists….we need to talk about what sort of things those would be, identify the nature of them”
Winter says investors around the world want clarification before they invest in BC.
He says mining people in Hong Kong were told to stay away because of the lack of confidence their investment will have.
Winter says the Province has to clean that up if we want to be competitive, particularily when there is so much on the table with the opportunities around LNG and other energy related investors.