Caps on rent increases under the provincial Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act are not binding on the Sechelt Indian Band (SIB), the B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled.
In a June 5 decision, which sets aside a B.C. Supreme Court judgment from last year, the appeal court found the provincial act was not constitutionally applicable to SIB lands.
Speaking to local government officials at a land-use workshop on Tuesday, Chief Garry Feschuk said the ruling in the Band's favour was "so significant" for the shíshálh Nation.
"And all we were trying to do was establish fair market rent for people who are leasing our lands," Feschuk said.
The case dates back to Sept. 10, 2007, when the Band sent notice of a rent increase to tenants Christine Farmer and the late Jesse George, who resided in a trailer park on Sechelt Nation lands in the Powell River area.
"This increase was a very substantial one from a yearly rent in the range of $6,500 to a yearly rent in the range of $24,000," Court of Appeal Justice John Hall wrote in his 18-page decision, noting that Farmer and her family have been long-term lessees and are not Band members.
The proposed increase "led to considerable controversy and discussion," which went on for a three-year period until the fall of 2010, Hall wrote. "It appears that some accommodation was ultimately agreed whereby any rent increase was to be staggered over a number of years and would range from an annual rental of about $9,000 in the first year up to something around $18,000 in the fifth year."
While lower than the increase proposed in 2007, the new amount was "still a significant rental increase to be borne by the tenants," Hall wrote.
In October 2010, the tenants applied to the Residential Tenancy Board (RTB) and its dispute resolution officer ruled in February 2011 that the proposed rent increases were "ineffective." The Band applied for a judicial review, but last year Supreme Court Justice Arne Silverman upheld the RTB's right to adjudicate in the dispute.
The appeal court struck down that decision.
In his reasons for judgment, Hall cited sections in the 1986 Sechelt Indian Band Self-Government Act and concurred with the SIB position that only the federal government has jurisdiction over "Indians and lands reserved for the Indians" under the Canadian Constitution.
"I consider the essence of the case [and the dispute] concerns the subject matter of the management and possession of Sechelt lands," Hall wrote, calling the land issue "a core element of federal jurisdiction" under the Constitution.
"It is a matter that lies at the core of Indianness," he wrote. "Interference on this subject by a provincial enactment is not permissible."
Hall's decision was supported by B.C. Court of Appeal Chief Justice Lance Finch and Justice Elizabeth Bennett.
In a press release, the Band said the appeal court's decision places it "in a better position to fulfill its obligation to manage the Sechelt lands for the use and benefit of the Band and its members."
