BC Completes First Land Transfer to Snuneymuxw First Nation

The British Columbia provincial government and the Snuneymuxw First Nation jointly announced on Thursday (1-11-24) that they had taken a major step in the shared reconciliation journey with a completed transfer of 212 hectares (524 acres) of land on Te’tuxwtun, known as Mount Benson East.

According to the press release, this is the first step in the implementation of the Snuneymuxw First Nation and British Columbia Land Transfer Agreement (2020), with the remaining 2,882 hectares (7,122 acres) planned for transfer to Snuneymuxw in the near future. This land transfer is an important tool to support the implementation of the Saarlequun Snuneymuxw Treaty of 1854.

The Mount Benson East land is a heavily forested area south of Nanaimo within Snuneymuxw territory and is in relationship with Snuneymuxw’s villages and waterways. The land being rightfully returned is now part of the Nation’s Petroglyph Development Corporation land holdings and is part of the Nation’s forest management program.

The statement notes that this is the first land transfer under the 2020 Land Transfer Agreement, which will see 3,094 hectares (7,645 acres) of Crown lands near the city of Nanaimo transferred to Snuneymuxw First Nation. Snuneymuxw and the Province are actively preparing the remaining parcels of land attached to this agreement—Mount Benson North (742 hectares) and Mount McKay (2,097 hectares)—as part of the full implementation of the Land Transfer Agreement announced in 2020.