RECONCILIATION: MOVING FORWARD TOGETHER - APPENDICES
G-2
BC Housing provided the draft report to its senior leadership for their perspective on the ability to operationalize the recommendations within their business areas. Eight of the 14 senior staff provided feedback and their comments are presented below in summary form (please note that this feedback is not part of the original staff interview process). Table G-1: Overall Feedback on Draft Report 1. Dismantling Colonial Systems Work from the perspective that First Nations partners are already empowered and see the decision making from an Indigenous perspective, not from existing colonial frameworks and processes (and legal structures). Adopt a “decolonize first” approach, acknowledging and accepting our context in colonial and neo-colonial practices that require change as part of meaningful reconciliation. 2. Building Partnerships Enroll Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Indigenous Services Canada, and other government partners in this work. Engage with Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation and ensure our approach continues to set a high standard for government and is replicable and transferable for adoption across other government Ministries and Crown Corporations. 3. Building an Indigenous Team BC Housing could consider establishing an Indigenous Relations Division similar to the Health Authority model in BC. An Indigenous division and VP at the Executive Committee could ensure strengthening Indigenous relations becomes embedded in the organization’s culture. This might be a way to demonstrate to the Indigenous community that we recognize the importance of Reconciliation and the pre-eminence of the Indigenous community in the work of BC Housing. 4. Economic Reconciliation Consideration of the importance of economic reconciliation and exploration of our program requirements to influence the community housing sector to advance on programs, services, staffing that reflects the people they serve and the communities in which they work. Evolve our procurement processes to be supportive of Indigenous businesses in housing projects through an Indigenous Procurement program. 5. Address the Disproportionate Number of Indigenous People Accessing our Housing and Programs Acknowledge the disproportionate numbers of Indigenous people in social housing, homeless shelters, and street homelessness. The reasons for this are historical and a product of a colonial past, where all policies, starting with the Indian Act , for Indigenous people were designed by others to take our land and prevent self-determination and community well-being. 6. Embedding Indigenous Knowledge into BC Housing Business We need to embed Indigenous methods, philosophies, reconciliation in the manner in which we do our business. We need to adopt the philosophical statement “nothing for us, without us”.
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