Langley MP to lead Conservative task force on private property
Published 8:00 pm Tuesday, April 28, 2026
Federal Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre has tapped Langley-Fraser Heights MP Tako van Popta to lead a new internal party task force on private property rights.
Poilievre announced the appointment of van Popta in an open letter to the MLA on Thursday, April 23.
The Conservative leader referenced the Cowichan Tribes v. Canada court decision last year, which found that the First Nation’s rights to 732 acres of land in Richmond was “prior and senior” to other rights, including potentially that of private landowners.
Although the ruling has caused concern over property rights and land values, the ruling and senior Cowichan officials have said they do not seek to invalidate fee-simple land ownership of existing private property owners.
Poilievre’s letter to van Popta called the ruling “a foundational shift in the definition of property and it is having real consequences.”
The letter noted that one company was unable to get financing for a $100 million investment because lenders were unsure about the land’s value as collateral.
“Canada must pursue reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, but these decisions are moving in the opposite direction,” Poilievre wrote. “The result is confusion, economic paralysis and a step backwards for all.”
Van Popta commented on the Cowichan ruling earlier this month in the House of Commons.
“Clearly, the Liberals have dropped the ball on this one,” van Popta said.
Van Popta’s new role will include exploring legislative and constitutional options to protect property rights, guiding caucus discussions on the matter, and advising on new developments in Aboriginal title litigation.
The new task force will call for putting private property rights first in the Cowichan case.
British Columbia has seen a number of Aboriginal land title claims and court cases because, unlike most of the rest of Canada, very few First Nations here signed treaties with the government. Instead, their land and traditional territories were simply taken.
In some cases, lands that had been granted as reserves were later taken away from First Nations peoples, which has resulted in some lands being returned following modern-day court challenges. The Senakw development on False Creek in Vancouver was created on land that was a Squamish First Nation reserve in the late 1800s, but which was then illegally expropriated in the early 1900s, before the Squamish won its return through a legal challenge in 2001.