A new Cochrane town council will consider dedicating staff to Truth and Reconciliation with local Indigenous people and creating a committee with the collaboration of Indigenous citizens.
In May, Coun. Susan Flowers asked administration to investigate how the Town can formalize Truth and Reconciliation with local and nearby Indigenous people. Four months later, administration reported to council it heard that Indigenous people did not feel represented in the community and recommended dedicating resources to Town staff to move forward projects that would address services, education and visibility.
Flowers said the Town is doing good work, including through the Equity and Inclusion committee, but said more needs to be done.
“I believe it is time for Cochrane to be proactive and go beyond the lip service,” Flowers said after hearing the report from administration. “We need to show respect and I know respect is a strong value for the Indigenous people and it is something we all need to learn and more training around respect for our fellow human beings will be an asset.”
Town CAO Mike Derricott said the report brought up some startling admissions.
“In some of the interactions with the Indigenous peoples (there is) this reflection that they don’t see themselves represented in the community of Cochrane and I think that is a sobering thought for us as community leaders and how we can change that,” he said.
The report pointed out that Town consultations and needs assessments have had no response from the Indigenous community, that there is little to no visual depictions of the Indigenous population in Town facilities, very little understanding of the history of the nearby Stoney Nakoda Nation and minimal cultural education programming and education within the volunteer sector.
Derricott, who reviewed the report during the council meeting, emphasized the need for a dedicated staff to carry out the work needed to work with Indigenous people living in the town, region and the Stoney Nakoda Nation in Morley.
“It has to move off the side of desks to be someone’s desk completely if we want to see this work move ahead,” Derricott said.
According to the 2016 census, there were more than 1,000 people living in Cochrane who identified as Indigenous. Morley, 30 kilometres west of Cochrane, is home to over 5,000 people from the Stoney Nakoda Nation.
“So we can see this is present in our school in our community, in our businesses,” Derricott said of Truth and Reconciliation. “This isn’t far from us, it is close to us.”
Town administration has been working on issues relating to Truth and Reconciliation, including creating a land acknowledgment for the Town, Derricott told council.
For example, the Town with an Indigenous advisor has been putting together a Truth and Reconciliation toolkit that includes orange shirt day recognition and training, a library of resources, a Treaty 7 flag, a draft land acknowledgement for administration, guidelines for relationship building.
That work will continue, he said, but said more resources are needed to expedite and add to the Town’s work around Truth and Reconciliation.
“There are three kind of significant elements to do this work,” said Derricott. “One is how we present this work in the community and how we connect the community to this work and what is our role as community leaders there. Then there is the internal organizational work we have to do to understand Truth and Reconciliation and make sure we are an organization that is responsive to that part of our Canadian history. And then there is the intergovernmental connection, which is how do we interact with them as a partner government.”
