Snuneymuxw First Nation Council addressed Nanaimo City Council this week. Got me thinking...

On Monday Feb. 22 Snuneymuxw Chief John Wesley and most of his Council appeared in front of Nanaimo City Council at Council's Committee of the Whole meeting. Councillor and former Chief Doug White spoke for SFN Council who have recently been elected to a four year term. White placed the relationship between the Snuneymuxw and the City of Nanaimo in the context of a long history going back to the establishment by the European colonizers of a coal mining based settlement on traditional Snuneymuxw village sites. He reminded Council of existing and unresolved treaty rights and land claims issues. He pointed out the rights of the Snuneymuxw covered by the Douglas Treaty impact specifically the City owned Wellcox railyards and adjacent lands in Nanaimo's downtown waterfront.

SFN Councillor Erralyn Thomas reminded Council of the legal procedures available to settle claims but that's the "hard way" and is to be avoided if possible. She also spoke of the need for a new, stronger relationship between the two governments, as White said SFN Council are looking for ways "we can stand together again shoulder to shoulder as we have done in the past in real, true reconciliation and respect."

#Snuneymuxw Chief and Council incl Cllr @dougswhite address @CityofNanaimo Council http://www.nanaimo.ca/meetings/VideoPlayer/Index/COW160222V?start=978
Posted by Nanaimo Commons on Tuesday, February 23, 2016

I see this as an enormously important development, granted that at this stage it’s mostly symbolic. Nanaimo Council’s response was appreciative and respectful and as you’d expect expressed the correct sentiments. City of Nanaimo Council will no doubt reciprocate and appear at a Snuneymuxw Council meeting. Problem is it’s time to move beyond gesture and (on the part of the City of Nanaimo) platitudes. The time is right for concrete action to the benefit of, as Nanaimo Councillor and former Snuneymuxw Councillor Bill Yoachim said, "all citizens from every corner.” 

Which brings into focus for me a number of things, local and national currently at play and I find myself playing join the dots —

● New federal government’s multi-year public infrastructure spending plans.
● The 94 Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
● The new Federal government’s expressed commitment to acting on the TRC’s recommendations..
● The relationship between Snuneymuxw First Nation and Vancouver Island University.
● The “potentially transformative” City of Nanaimo owned waterfront railyards and the adjoining declining marine and industrial lands of the Federal Government’s Nanaimo Port Authority.
● The large city centre site at the Quennel Square precinct at Selby and Franklyn Street held by School District 68 with as I understand it, oversight by the Provincial Ministry of Education.

Let’s start with the TRC’s Calls to Action dot. They offer Canada an historic opportunity to thrive in a post-colonial 21st Century. Meaningful implementation of the recommendations will need the required funding commitment of the Federal Government. A number of the Calls to Action concern education and training, in areas of law and the court system; medicine, health-care and therapeutic; arts, culture and indigenous languages; K-12, college and post-secondary education; policing and corrections.

What new First Nations-run public institutions will be created to execute this enormous task? From that question I see intriguing combinations of the dots. In establishing on one of the sites listed above such a centre the Snuneymuxw First Nation, working with the City of Nanaimo, the Canadian and Provincial governments and Vancouver Island University, would make a contribution both to bringing real-world substance to the TRC recommendations and a timely new focus, economic and cultural, to Nanaimo.

Opportunity knocks. Private sector investment is clearly not the key to Nanaimo's prosperity, though it will follow as we make smart investments in educational facilities, high quality public space and amenities, transit and the continued creation of a walkable, compact urban city centre.

A good editorial on the recent Snuneymuxw First Nation Council presentation to Nanaimo City Council.

Posted by Doug White on Saturday, February 27, 2016

---