The Kitselas and K'ómoks Treaties represent decades of hard work and democratic decisions by two First Nations. They deserve to come into force on solid ground, celebrated by the Nations that negotiated long and hard to get them.

They, and every Treaty Nation behind them in the BC process, deserve a Crown that does its full job, not one that offloads the hard part and hopes the courts and the corridors hold.

The last time Canada faced a real prospect of separation, treaties were largely absent from the conversation, they will not be next time. Any province looking to leave Canada will have to answer a harder question than it did in 1995. Not just whether Canada is divisible. But whether the Treaty relationships that underpin it are.

And that is a question no referendum can settle on its own.

Why hasn’t Canada replaced its policy approach to Indigenous self-government?

In the 2023 UNDRIP Action Plan, it committed to withdraw both the Comprehensive Land Claims Policy and the Inherent Right Policy and to define a new rights recognition approach. That hasn’t happened. Canada now operates beyond the policy it still formally relies on, creating unnecessary risk and confusion.

Unlike many parts of the country where consultation frameworks remain contested, Modern Treaty agreements establish defined authorities, land ownership regimes, and regulatory roles for Indigenous governments.

Modern Treaties are not about creating new rights. They are about formally recognizing rights that have existed for generations and establishing clear governance arrangements for how those rights are exercised.

In Modern Treaty regions, decisions about developments do not move solely through federal or territorial regulators. They move through governance systems created under Modern Treaties, including environmental assessment boards, land use planning bodies, and wildlife management institutions.

Modern Treaty Nations are not just participants in projects. Increasingly, they are proponents, partners, land owners, and decision-makers rolled into one, and are shaping how projects are designed from the outset.