B.C. Public Accounts list more than 334,600 acres in First Nations land commitments

B.C.’s 2025-26 Public Accounts list more than 334,600 acres, or 135,425 hectares, of provincial Crown land committed to First Nations through modern and incremental treaty agreements. The commitments involve 20 First Nations or First Nations groups and cover about 1,354 square kilometres.

The largest listed commitments are about 113,150 acres for Kitsumkalum and 87,200 acres for Kitselas, together accounting for nearly 60 per cent of the disclosed total. Other large commitments include lands for Wuikinuxv, In-SHUCK-ch and Yekooche. Most of the land is in northwestern B.C., with other areas on the Central Coast, near the Lower Lillooet River and in north-central B.C.

The accounts also refer separately to the Yale First Nation Final Agreement, which would provide about 2,913 acres, $2.5 million in cash and $1.1 million in economic-development funding. Yale ratified the agreement in 2011, followed by the provincial government that year and Parliament in 2013, but an effective date has not been agreed. Including those lands would bring the total to about 337,557 acres.

As of March 31, 2026, the province reported 37 First Nations groups in active or completed negotiations, representing 61 current or former Indian Act bands. The accounts say costs are recorded once final treaty agreements are ratified, with the federal government generally expected to provide the capital-transfer component and provincial Crown land forming another major part of settlements.

The BC Conservatives said the Public Accounts show only part of the land that could be affected by other negotiations or agreements. The party claimed as much as 24 million acres could ultimately be involved and called for a halt to further transfers and repeal of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. Those figures and characterizations are the party’s claims; the provincial disclosure cited in the report lists 334,643 acres.