First nations disputes with the Canadian government date back many decades, and these disputes have mostly affected BC businesses in the political external aspect of the PEST analysis. The article titled “B.C Premier urges cooperation, not more litigation, as government and natives reach “new fork in road””, talks about how a recent court ruling confirmed that aboriginal title exists, meaning that First Nations people are legal owners of certain land. As a result, businesses will have no access to natural resources that are located within First Nations land, which will probably increase their costs in the cost structure of their business model as they will have to import some of their key resources from other places. Additionally, First Nations people are requesting that revenue sharing with them is increased. This would therefore change the tax structure of BC, which could negatively impact businesses as they could be forced to pay more taxes to help provide “economic certainty for everyone”, which would impact their cost structures and revenue streams.

This article also relates to another news article that I recently read titled “Atleo to lead talks between B.C, First Nations”, as it talks about how Premier Christy Clark has recently appointed national aboriginal leader Shawn Atleo as a First Nations representative that will lead talks between the government, business community and First Nations people of British Columbia. In this news article, we can see that even more progress has been made on improving the relationship between the First Nations people and the BC government, since these aboriginal people now have Atleo to officially represent their interests. As the relationship between First Nations people and the government improves, however, businesses throughout British Columbia will have to prepare for the possibility of more restrictions being imposed favouring aboriginal people and their territory over business operations.

Optional reading article source: http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Premier+urges+cooperation+more+litigation+government+natives+reach+fork+road/10194776/story.html#__federated=1

News article source: http://www.leaderpost.com/technology/Atleo+lead+talks+between+First+Nations/10337143/story.html#__federated=1

Image source: http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2014/06/26/supreme_court_grants_land_title_to_bc_first_nation_in_landmark_case/vcn5c1214jpg_1.jpg.size.xxlarge.promo.jpg