The province may need up to $1 billion in loan guarantees to backstop financing for properties affected by a landmark Aboriginal title ruling, far exceeding Premier David Eby’s $150 million pledge, a property tax expert warns.
Paul Sullivan, principal at Ryan LLC, calculated the estimate based on standard banking practices. Banks typically lend 70 to 75 per cent of a property’s value, and properties in the title area total roughly $1.3 billion.
“There’s just not enough being said here. This feels like a sound bite without any interpretive detail,” Sullivan told the Vancouver Sun, questioning whether the program guarantees property values or just access to financing.
The concerns stem from an August 7 BC Supreme Court ruling granting the Cowichan Tribes Aboriginal title to 300 to 324 hectares in Richmond. Justice Barbara Young ruled Crown grants of fee simple title to federal and municipal land lacked constitutional authority and are “defective and invalid.”
Related: Eby blasts “dramatic, overreaching, and unhelpful” court rulings
Eby announced his government will “go to the wall” to defend private property rights. The province plans $100 million for Montrose Properties, which owns 120 hectares in the title area, and $54 million for smaller owners.
A lender denied Montrose Properties $35 million in financing due to the ruling. Sullivan spearheads a mass property tax appeal for 45 affected properties worth over $2 billion. “I don’t think these properties are saleable,” he said.
The Supreme Court of Canada must resolve how Aboriginal title applies to private lands. The notwithstanding clause cannot override the decision because it does not apply to Section 35 of the Constitution.
Cindy Daniels, chief of Cowichan Tribes, said the nation purposefully did not bring the case against individual private landowners. Shana Thomas, chief of Lyackson First Nation, said the lawsuit’s intention was not to deepen division. “We are here to build a just future based on truth and reconciliation,” Thomas said.
The federal government, British Columbia, Richmond, and the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority are all appealing the decision. Observers anticipate the legal process will take years to resolve, with significant implications for how Aboriginal title and private property ownership coexist in Canada.
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