Have Your Voice Heard on Reciprocity.
Hello Victoria residents!
2022 is here, and with it we all have a chance to do something really important: support our little city to make a big step towards decolonization and reconciliation.
Now is the time for support – we need your letters and emails!
By the end of this week, the City of Victoria needs to hear and see us support their proposal to make a new annual Reconciliation Grant to the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations. The City would allocate 15% of new assessed development revenue to go directly to the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations, whose lands and waters make our city the incredible place we get to call home.
Think of it as reciprocity for public lands.
This is our only opportunity to have this included in the budget for 2022. If this happens, it will be an important advancement of public land reciprocity, and a first of its kind in British Columbia and Canada.
The problem is, some people are against this, and they are getting vocal in the local media.
The decision to include the grant in the budget is happening in a motion at the City of Victoria’s next council meeting, this coming Monday January 17, 2022.
Last month we asked for your support (and thank you for it!) for this when the idea was at an earlier stage in the political process. Council voted to engage the public on a proposed community reconciliation levy. The results of that engagement can be found on page 20 of the document here (click g.1.f, then Item 3 and go page 20 of the pdf – or see the results below). As you can see, more respondents disagree with the proposal than agree.

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