SKIDEGATE, B.C. — With tears streaming down his face, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a gathering of Haida Nation leaders and community members that he couldn’t think of a better place to make one of his final trips as Canada’s leader.
“Haida Gwaii belongs to you, the Haida people,” he said, as the crowd cheered, clapped and rose to its feet. “This is only the beginning of a new chapter: between the Haida Nation and the Canadian government, Trudeau said.
The federal government and the Haida Nation signed a historic agreement Monday recognizing Aboriginal title over the archipelago of Haida Gwaii off British Columbia’s northern coast.
Trudeau told the crowd at an official signing ceremony at the Skidegate community hall that Haida Gwaii is a special place for him, having first visited with his father and brothers in 1976.
“Everything has come full circle,” he told the crowd, some of whom were dressed in elaborate regalia, while others wore traditional woven cedar hats.
Trudeau said the agreement enshrines the right of the Haida to control their own destiny.
“A new chapter (that) confirms an incontrovertible and long-known truth: Haida Gwaii belongs to you,” he said to thunderous applause.
Trudeau said the landmark agreement “recognizes that the Haida people have lived here since time immemorial. That the Haida people have an inalienable right to use, manage and enjoy the lands of Haida Gwaii as they see fit. That self-determination is the only path toward true reconciliation.”
The Big Tide Haida Title Lands Agreement affirms that the Haida have Aboriginal title over all of the islands’ lands, beds of freshwater bodies, and foreshores to the low-tide mark.
It will transition the Crown-title land to the Haida people, granting them an inherent legal right to the land.
The transfer of the underlying title would affect how courts interpret issues involving disputes.
Gaagwiis Jason Alsop, president of the Council of the Haida Nation, held up the agreement signed Monday to show the crowd.
He said the ceremony represents a move from an era of denial, occupation and resistance to one of peaceful coexistence and recognition that “this is Haida land.”
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree told the crowd gathered for the ceremony that it was a moment where history was being made.
Anandasangaree said in an earlier interview that the agreement will kick off a five-year transition period and will require legislation to iron out all the details about how this will apply in practice.
He said it is the first time the federal government has recognized Aboriginal title through negotiations.
Ottawa said it will work respectfully and co-operatively with the Haida Nation on matters relating to Haida Gwaii.
It said both governments have agreed the shift will be “orderly and incremental” to provide stability to residents and other interest holders.
The agreement follows similar recognition by the B.C. government last year.
It resolves a four-decade-long fight that began with a logging blockade and became an intensely fought legal battle.
The agreement comes more than two decades after the Council of the Haida Nation launched a legal challenge against Canada and the province, seeking a declaration of Aboriginal title.
The ministry said the three parties have been negotiating since 2021 to “incrementally negotiate” matters that would otherwise have to be litigated.
It said Canada provided $59 million in funding to the Haida in an “advance capital transfer” to boost the nation’s “governance capacity building.”
About 15 per cent of Haida Gwaii is owned, managed or used by the federal government, including a national park and Haida heritage site.
A further two per cent are owned byother parties.
Alsop has called the new law in B.C. a “step toward peaceful coexistence” with the province.
He said in April that the nation planned on taking control of Haida Gwaii’s economy according to its values and traditions, taking a sustainable rather than exploitive approach to the land and the sea.
The provincial Opposition B.C. Conservative Party has criticized the agreement, saying it puts private landowners “at the mercy of Haida (and) future Haida Indigenous law.”
But the First Nations Leadership Council in B.C. has said the agreement does not affect private property rights.
Anandasangaree dismissed the concerns about impacts on landowners as a “lot of noise.”
“One of the key elements of this agreement is that private title will not be impacted in any way,” he said. “Your ability to get a mortgage, or ability to get the property encumbered for construction for putting on a lien — all of those will continue.”
The federal Haida Nation Recognition Act was passed last year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 17, 2025.
— With files from Kyle Duggan in Ottawa
Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press
