Sechelt (shíshálh) First Nation councillor and hereditary chief Garry Feschuk made two major announcements last Saturday at the band’s community event in Madeira Park.
After a 12-year moratorium on new dock construction in Pender Harbour, a tentative agreement has been reached with the province for a dock management plan, Feschuk said.
“I’m actually hear to say to you that we have a tentative agreement,” Feschuk told about 200 people who filled the Pender Harbour Community Hall. “My God, we actually have a tentative agreement.”
Feschuk noted the band has been working on the docks issue since 1993, “trying to come up with a solution so that it could be a win for our nation, it could be a win for the residents, and it could be a win for the government.”
An open house will be held in April to unveil the draft plan, he said.
“We’re not trying to stop the docks — we’re trying to protect the areas that need to be protected.”
The province confirmed Tuesday the open house is set for April 11.
“Staff from the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations (FLNRO) have worked with Sechelt Nation to come to a substantial agreement on a draft dock management plan,” ministry spokeswoman Vivian Thomas said.
Staff from FLNRO and the Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation will participate in the open house, Thomas said. A 30-day public review and comment period will follow.
The province will also be seeking input on the draft plan from the Sunshine Coast Regional District.
“Once finalized, the draft management plan will guide provincial decision-making related to proposed docks in Pender Harbour,” Thomas said. “Any local government bylaws applicable to Pender Harbour would also apply.”
In a second announcement, Feschuk said the band would be hosting a ceremony in Sechelt at the end of this month to mark the renaming of St. Mary’s Hospital.
“We’re going to have a sacred ceremony in the longhouse to celebrate that,” he said, adding the name change was “for a reason.”
Feschuk, when serving as chief, had requested the name change because St. Mary’s was also the name of a residential school in Mission attended by some band members, for whom the name evokes painful memories. On Saturday, he acknowledged “everyone who has come forward and supported us on that.”
Chief Calvin Craigan invited audience members to come and witness the occasion, saying provincial Health Minister Terry Lake and Assembly of First Nations Grand Chief Perry Bellegarde had accepted invitations to attend.
Craigan noted his father, who was chief in 1960, had donated the land, which was a piece of the residential school property, but passed away in Vancouver one year before the hospital’s doors opened in 1964.
“That land has never been blessed properly, so we’re going to take advantage of that event and re-bless the ground that the hospital sits on,” Craigan said.
Two totem poles will be raised during the ceremony “in honour of our people” and a welcome statue will be raised to welcome all Sunshine Coast residents, he added.
“It’s going to be a historical event because this has never happened across Canada. This will be a first of its kind. We would really like to see each and every one of you there.”
While the Ministry of Health confirmed Lake was planning to attend the ceremony on March 28, a spokesman referred a request to confirm the name change to Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH).
VCH spokeswoman Anna Marie D’Angelo said Tuesday that VCH was continuing discussions with the band “on what the name change might look like and how it would work.”
The ministry, VCH and “stakeholders across the community are supportive of the need to move away from St. Mary’s, given the history of the name with the residential school system,” D’Angelo said.
While “nothing official has been signed off as yet … VCH is keen to move forward with this.”
D’Angelo said the estimated cost of changing hospital signs and related expenses is about $10,000 to $12,000.
