Supreme Court of Canada Cases Strengthen Argument for Municipal Obligation to Discharge Duty to Consult: Time to Put Neskonlith to Rest

Authors

Angela D’Elia Decembrini, First Peoples Law, Vancouver, British Columbia
Shin Imai, Osgoode Hall Law School of York UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2019

Source Publication

Alberta Law Review. Volume 56 Issue 3 (2019), p. 935-950

Abstract

Can municipalities infringe Aboriginal or treaty rights without consulting the affected Indigenous group? In Neskonlith Indian Band v. Salmon Arm (City), the British Columbia Court of Appeal answered this question in the affirmative, finding that the city of Salmon Arm did not need to consult the Neskonlith First Nation about impacts from the construction of a shopping mall. In what was technically obiter dicta, the Court permitted the municipal project to proceed, and told the First Nation that its only recourse was to complain to the provincial government in a separate proceeding.

Comments

Copyrighted (c) by the authors.

To use this article elsewhere, permission must be obtained from the authors and the Alberta Law Review.

Repository Citation

D’Elia Decembrini, A., & Imai, S. (2019). Supreme Court of Canada Cases Strengthen Argument for Municipal Obligation to Discharge Duty to Consult: Time to Put Neskonlith to Rest. Alberta Law Review, 56(3). https://doi.org/10.29173/alr2530