Skip to content

Session planned with northwest leaders to clarify provincial reconciliation efforts

Survey found widespread support for reconciliation, but underscored need for more information
28269021_web1_211007-TST-Terrace-reconciliation-day_4
People march along Millennium Trail in Terrace on Sept. 30, 2021 for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The provincial government is hosting a meeting next week of key northwestern decision-makers to find a way to better explain the new relationship it is setting up with First Nations. (Binny Paul/Terrace Standard)

The provincial government is hosting a meeting next week of key northwestern decision-makers to find a way to better explain the new relationship it is setting up with First Nations.

The March 10 session follows a survey of the same decision-makers conducted last year that revealed either little was known about the government’s reconciliation approach to providing First Nations with greater authority over resource use decisions or that local non-Indigenous interests were not included in agreements between First Nations and the province.

One of the goals of the session is to “raise awareness and deeper understanding of the breadth of reconciliation and stewardship work happening across the region,” states Linda Robertson, a senior forests, lands, natural resource operations and rural development official in setting out what the province hopes to accomplish.

Opinions and suggestions gathered from the session will then be used to craft what the province calls the Skeena Roundtable, a body of northwestern residents it hopes will then become a key player in communicating the province’s reconciliation message.

Robertson called the roundtable “an overarching venue to communicate and build general awareness about the suite of land and resource initiatives underway across the region, how they’re connected and how they are advancing reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.”

The 2021 survey that prompted the province to undertake this effort comes from sessions with local governments, forest tenure holders, chambers of commerce, environmental groups and non-profit groups with an interest in land use.

“While they overwhelmingly support the concept of reconciliation, they feel as though the lack of information and information about reconciliation initiatives is creating divides within communities, leading to rumours, misinformation, and stoking racist sentiment,” reads one of the findings done by the firm of Harris Palmer.

“There is limited understanding on what is included in Indigenous reconciliation initiatives, and how they might differ from treaty negotiations,” indicates another finding.

Under a section called ‘overall observations,’ Harris Palmer noted that “there is a perception that the province’s agenda is tied to time over quality - that the province’s priorities are focused on concluding agreements quickly rather than taking the time necessary to make sure they are foundationally strong.”

The provincial emphasis on Indigenous rights and title comes from it cementing into legislation the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP).

In Terrace, city councillors Brian Downie and Dave Gordon had indicated they’ll sit in on the March 10 Zoom session.

This won’t be the first time the province has set up a regional group framed around Indigenous resource use decision making authority.

In 2020 it set up a group of local governments and others centred within Wet’suwet’en traditional territory so that there could be participation in negotiations surrounding that First Nation’s rights and title.

That grew out of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, the province and the federal government in 2020 following blockades and protests stemming from the Coastal GasLink pipeline project.

The full group of between 30 and 50 members is to hold quarterly meetings and a core group of eight to 12 people is to meet monthly.

There are also supposed to be webinars and town halls to “engage the public on the rights and title dialogue” but none have so far happened.

READ MORE: ‘This is what reconciliation looks like’: Hundreds from northwest B.C. gather to honour trucker convoy in Terrace