RECONCILIATION: MOVING FORWARD TOGETHER - APPENDICES
F-6
2. Do you have any changes or additions to the What We Heard section regarding Building Relationships? Ensure that relationships come first. We need regular communication and we need to feel that we can turn to someone with questions without judgement. Continued communication with the Indigenous organizations, Indigenous Communities, and off reserve Indigenous peoples. Building a positive relationship, having a solid foundation of communication would be beneficial on both spectrums. The Indigenous ways, and the western ways, to have a common ground. BC housing should also look into having an Aboriginal Liaison to commit to having a positive communication of all parties. Having an Aboriginal Liaison within BC Housing can be an advocate for the Indigenous peoples, and Mediate between all parties.
Table F-4: Feedback on Section 7 Supporting Reconciliation 1. Do you have any changes or additions to the Supporting Reconciliation Recommendations?
By not identifying the unique needs and culture of Métis and Inuit in BC, the ability to support reconciliation with these groups is watered down. Adding information specific to Métis (and Inuit) in BC allows for an understanding of the unique contributing factors to the hurdles being faced by Indigenous groups who are not ‘First Nations’ by definition. I struggle reading the recommendations here. I recognize it is not BCH's mandate but if what's plumbed in is not safe drinking water (or cannot be plumbed in) then the housing built is not viable. A recommendation for BCH to have a champion and key navigator to leverage for safe drinking water when needed would be helpful potentially. Do the BC Housing staff, development consultants know about our area and the concerns we have in our communities? Each community is unique. There needs to be the time taken by BC Housing staff to do the research and come and talk to our board and senior staff and learn about these challenges. In many of the rural towns/cities, do the Indigenous organizations have priority to grants that BC Housing provides? This would be an opportunity for reconciliation, to have Indigenous organizations as first priority to grants with Housing, as these organizations will be a step in the right direction with Reconciliation. 2. Do you have any changes or additions to the What We Heard section regarding Supporting Reconciliation? ‘Increase Housing Supply’: Talks about on and off reserve housing needs. This does not identify Métis people’s unique needs since there is not a Reserve system in place for Métis and as such no ’home’ to move back to. However, Métis are often lumped into the ‘Off Reserve’ category, which is categorically incorrect.
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