As a result of that latter provision, the court also held that compensation is required for any crown land the province has converted fee-simple to private owners, and to which natives can prove title including expensive real estate in such areas as Vancouver. Even if compensation is assessed using land values at the time of infringement, compounded to today's levels, analysts say the price tag will be astronomical. In doing so, the court disregarded B.C. Chief Justice Allan McEachern's conclusion in the original 1990 ruling that the aboriginal oral testimony he had admitted was too contradictory to be legitimate. In the two months since the Supreme Court delivered its Delgamuukw decision, both the province and feds have yet to release policy responses to the ruling, or analyses of how it will affect treaty talks. A Federal Treaty Office insider told B.C. Report last week that no policy response has been issued because none exists.
Nobody knows what to do with it.
That policy predated the Supreme Court's ruling. Without wanting to let off the Supreme Court entirely, I think it needs to be said that this ruling came out of this milieu created by both governments. The NDP's current dithering in response to Delgamuukw is further bolstering the natives' hand, says B.C. Liberal aboriginal affairs critic Bill Barisoff. He notes that the Nisgaa AIP, still being finalized, contains no such provision, leaving the door open for the treaty to be reopened in the future. The most important word in the B.C. treaty negotiation process is extinguishment.