Municipality begins work with Little Shuswap Indian Band
Sun Peaks Mountain Resort Municipality (SPMRM) representatives have met with the Little Shuswap Indian Band for the first time as part of a grant from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs & Housing and Indigenous Services Canada.
After approval for the grant the two groups held their preliminary meeting this summer, planning for two full meetings. One will be hosted in each community and Fraser Basin Council staff will attend in the facilitator role.
Sun Peaks’ Mayor Al Raine said the meeting was very positive and set the agenda for the future.
“I’m looking forward to those meetings,” he said. “We have had a very good relationship with the band all along but it’s not quite functioning totally the way we want it to. And to be quite frank, we owe it to First Nations to have a working relationship.”
Raine said in the future he would like to develop relationships with other bands in the area such as Neskonlith and Adams Lake.
“There’s a history there we shouldn’t be proud of,” he continued. “If we can foster a positive relationship with all three bands I’d be tickled pink.
“I’d love to see the bands get access to some of the land (between Sun Peaks and Chase) and work with them on tourism products.”
Raine added it would be good to have a paved road connecting the areas both for tourism and to promote more band members working in Sun Peaks.
“To have band members working up here is great, we’d like to show we’re open to anyone who wants to come and work hard.”
The Community to Community (C2C) Forum Grant has been offered since 1999 as a way to bring together First Nations groups with local governments. The goal of the forums is increased understanding and improved relations by providing a place and time for conversations with a facilitator.
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