Opinion piece submitted by Larry Brandt – MWF Member
Article Based on Caroline Elliott’s column in the National Post and the Manitoba Wildlife Federation’s Access for All campaign.
Across the country, a major shift is happening — quietly, but with massive implications. In British Columbia, the NDP government under Premier David Eby is moving to require “free, prior and informed consent” from Indigenous groups before approving major projects on Crown land. While framed as a step toward reconciliation, this isn’t just consultation — it’s being treated as a veto. If Indigenous communities don’t consent, major projects like mines, pipelines, or even community developments could be blocked indefinitely. As Caroline Elliott warns in her July 23, 2025, National Post column, this fundamentally reshapes who gets to make decisions about public lands — once managed by governments on behalf of all citizens. It sets a precedent: provincial authority and public access could be overridden by closed-door agreements and undefined “consent” processes. And that’s not staying in B.C.
What This Means for Manitoba
The Manitoba Wildlife Federation (MWF) has been raising the alarm for over a year. Their Access for All campaign highlights how hunting, fishing, trapping, farming, and other rural activities are quietly restricted — not through open votes, but through policies, agreements, and court cases that shift control of Crown lands into fewer and less transparent hands. For example:
- Licensed moose hunting tags were slashed by 75% in four major game areas in 2024 — without clear public data or consultation.
- Federal and provincial governments are pushing toward “30 by 30” conservation targets (protecting 30% of lands and waters by 2030) and exploring new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs).
- Meanwhile, municipal leaders, rural communities, and local users have been left in the dark or outright excluded from negotiations.
MWF doesn’t oppose Indigenous stewardship or responsible conservation. What they oppose is being shut out of the decisions — and watching government after government act unilaterally under the banner of reconciliation or environmentalism, while millions of acres of land become off-limits to the people who live closest to it.
Where This Is Headed
If Manitoba (or any other province) follows B.C.’s lead:
- Access to Crown land could become conditional — based on signed agreements and undefined “consent” mechanisms.
- Longstanding rights for non-Indigenous residents — like hunting, fishing, camping, forestry, and recreation — could be cancelled without debate, based on behind-the-scenes negotiations.
- Governments would be surrendering control over shared lands — not to Indigenous communities broadly, but often to a small number of leadership groups, lawyers, or environmental partners with no public accountability.
The Bigger Picture
What began as a good faith attempt at reconciliation is morphing into a restructuring of public land governance. Instead of open dialogue, we’re seeing power shifted away from elected governments — and toward deals that few people see, fewer people approve, and everyone must live under.
That’s why both Elliott and MWF are sounding the alarm. If we want true reconciliation, it must include every voice — Indigenous and non-Indigenous — rural and urban — in a process that’s transparent, respectful, and rooted in shared stewardship, not exclusion.
