Members of the Williams Lake city council met with members of the Tŝilhqot’in National Government (TNG) on April 3 to discuss opportunities for collaboration.
It was a bit of an historic meeting, said Tribal Chair and Tl’etinqox Chief and Joe Alphonse, noting it is a bit sad it has taken this long.
“Great to see a change in approach to doing business,” added Alphonse, who said across Canada, the regions doing well are ones where people work together.
“I think the message was really loud and clear, I think they want to work together,” Alphonse said of city leaders.
“That’s something that never would happen under previous leadership of this city,” he said, noting each First Nation must be treated with respect.
From the city of Williams Lake, Mayor Surinderpal Rathor, Councillors Joan Flaspohler, Jazmyn Lyons, Michael Moses and Scott Nelson, all attended the meeting.
From the TNG, Tribal Chair and Tl’etinqox Chief Joe Alphonse, ?Esdilagh Chief Troy Baptiste, Tl’esqox Chief Francis Laceese, Yunesit’in Chief Lennon Solomon, and Xeni Gwet’in Councillor James Lulua Jr all attended.
The meeting at Williams Lake city hall was to discuss future collaboration, joint economic opportunities and advancement of meaningful reconciliation between the city and TNG.
“We had a pretty good discussion,” said Mayor Surinderpal Rathor, noting he was looking forward to continuing to build a strong working relationship.
Rathor said the leaders hope to meet two to three times a year going forward and the atmosphere was very positive. Rathor admitted the controversy surrounding residential school denialism around the city of Quesnel mayor and his wife did come up.
Rathor noted it is a focus of the current Williams Lake city council’s agenda to work together with all levels of government, which includes First Nations governments.
“I can’t undo what happened,” said Rathor, referring to remarks in the past by the previous Williams Lake mayor which downplayed the impacts of the Indian Residential Schools system.
“The message being there’s more than one nation here and it’s a big region,” said Alphonse, noting there are six Tŝilhqot’in nations which help make up the more than 15 in the area.
He said many of the natural resources the city depends on come from Tŝilhqot’in territory and he hopes to see the contributions of TNG to the community acknowledged.
This week, Rathor and the rest of Williams Lake council will be voting on a motion to cancel the May 7, 2024 regular council meeting in order to attend “Nenqayni Chi’s Deni Wedli” Let’s Live Indigenous - Canadian History Through a Tsilhqot’in Lens event at the invitation of the TNG.
READ MORE: Tsilhqot’in Nation aims for control of child and family services
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