VICTORIA — The prospect of an early election in British Columbia is receding after the government announced that legislation to suspend parts of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act will no longer be a confidence vote.
Premier David Eby said last week that he was staking his government on the passage of the legislation, but NDP house leader Mike Farnworth says it won’t go before the legislature this week, and when it does it won’t be a confidence measure.
Farnworth says NDP legislator Joan Phillip, who is Indigenous, has indicated she is unable to vote for the bill, which has garnered widespread opposition from First Nations leaders, including Phillip’s husband, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip.
The NDP has a one seat majority in the legislature, and Farnworth says the government is still looking for a “path forward” on the legislation, but adds that it is “nonsense” to suggest that Eby has lost the confidence of the house.
Eby has said the declaration act, known as DRIPA, poses significant legal peril to the province, after it was interpreted in a recent court decision to mean it should be incorporated into B.C. laws “with immediate legal effect.”
Farnworth says the legislation to pause DRIPA, which is based on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, will be tabled during the current spring legislative session.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 13, 2026
Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press
