Municipal Calls to Action

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Final Report calls on municipalities to deliver specific outcomes for the following 5 Calls to Action:

Call to Action	Description	Specific Outcome
C2A # 43	UN Declaration (UNDRIP)	Fully adopt and implement UNDRIP as the framework for reconciliation
C2A # 47	Royal Proclamation and Covenant	Repudiate Doctrine of Discovery and terra nullius
C2A # 57	PD and Training for Public Servants	Provide education to civil servants on Indigenous issues, histories and treaties
C2A # 75	Missing Children and Burial Information	Develop and implement strategies and procedures for ongoing identification, documentation, maintenance, commemoration and protection of residential school cemeteries
C2A # 77	National Centre for Truth and reconciliation	All archives to collaborate with National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation on collection of all records

City of Victoria Commitment to Indigenous Reconciliation

Strategic Plan 2023 – 2026

The 2023–2026 Strategic Plan guides investment and development priorities for the City over a four-year period to improve the quality of life for residents, support economic health and vibrancy, and position the City as an innovative leader in climate action.

Our Cities Goals 

By 2026, Victoria will be a dynamic, inclusive, more affordable, safer, intentionally transformed city where people can imagine fa future for themselves and seven generations to come. We will be known for decisive leadership and innovation in climate action, housing, transportation and meaningful Reconciliation with the lək̓ʷəŋən speaking Songhees and Esquimalt Nations on whose lands the city exists.

The Strategic Plan identifies the Truth and Reconciliation as one of 8 priorities:

• Implement the City’s own 32 Calls to Action on Reconciliation
• Implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions Calls to Action that are directed to local governments and the eight other Calls that are directed to all levels of government
• Develop new plans to partner with the Songhees Nation and Esquimalt Nation in economic development opportunities
• Embrace an ongoing process to decolonize Victoria’s culture and governance

Victoria Reconciliation Dialogue’s 32 Calls to Action

Acknowledging the Lands and Waters

1. Recognize lək̓ʷəŋən names of particular regions or places within what is now called the City of Victoria.
2. Acknowledge and consider lək̓ʷəŋən heritage at the same time the City of Victoria’s heritage is acknowledged and considered.
3. Remediate the health of the Gorge waterway and Inner Harbour.
4. Establish areas of Victoria that acknowledge the lands and waters as living entities with rights and privileges.
5. Establish programs that enable City Council and City staff to learn about historical lək̓ʷəŋən uses of and practices with local lands and water.
6. Use or include lək̓ʷəŋən place names on site signage, and develop public acknowledgements of current and historical lək̓ʷəŋən leaders.

Lək̓ʷəŋən Teachings

• Ensure that the voices of lək̓ʷəŋən elders, Knowledge Keepers and Youth are included in reconciliation recommendations
• Ensure history, recognition of lands, stories, languages and presence is included in artistic lək̓ʷəŋən and architectural expressions of Victoria, and in city planning
• Acknowledge the legitimacy of lək̓ʷəŋən oral history
• Develop public acknowledgements of current and historical leaders amongst lək̓ʷəŋən people
• Provide adequate funding (full funding or enough to enable matching funding) to the Nations to catalyze the longhouse build atop Migan/Beacon Hill
• Urge Greater Victoria Harbour Authority to work with the Nations to revisit an Indigenous village/historic visitor opportunity at Ogden Point

Lək̓ʷəŋən Language

1. Ensure that Council and City staff have access to local Indigenous language resources currently available and that the Mayor is able to provide greetings in the lək̓ʷəŋən language
2. Establish a lək̓ʷəŋən language learning app so that public presenters, local and visiting, can properly pronounce “Lekwungen” and other local words necessary in territory acknowledgements

Relationship or Leadership Agreements

1. Enshrine the City Family as an ongoing responsibility of the City.
2. Ensure the continuation of Recognition Dialogues, beginning with one that focuses on lək̓ʷəŋən children and youth.
3. Develop a Memorandum of Understanding, related to governance, relationships and culture, with Songhees and Esquimalt Chiefs and Councils

Indigenization and Decolonization

1. Establish a requirement that new Council and senior staff participate in a process, such as the Kairos Blanket exercise, to learn about the truth elements of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action
2. Ensure that local media has information about the work the City of Victoria is doing with lək̓ʷəŋən people and why.
3. Revise these Calls to Action as needed as the City travels its journeys of Reconciliation, in conversation with the City Family
4. Establish opportunities, focusing on lək̓ʷəŋən ways of doing and being, for Council members and staff to learn how to Indigenize their professional practices
5. Organize presentations and smaller dialogues between City Family members and Council members and senior city staff who are not part of the city Family
6. Establish Indigenous-focused anti-racism training for Council members and staff
7. Include information and training about the City’s commitment to Indigenous relationships in orientations or onboarding processes for new Council members and city staff

City Council Practices

• Advocate to the Province to allow municipal governments to engage with First Nations or other groups of Indigenous people in camera, i.e. in closed meetings
• Ensure that lək̓ʷəŋən and other Indigenous peoples’ needs are not being used to advance agendas that have nothing or little to so with reconciliation
• Encourage, at school district, provincial and federal levels, the establishment of a lək̓ʷəŋən – focused school or schools, and support lək̓ʷəŋən programs in public schools across Victoria
• Support lək̓ʷəŋən business and entrepreneurial initiatives
• Meet with other governments, particularly local municipal governments, to share the story of Victoria’s relationship process with local Indigenous peoples
• Set expectations for City Councillors’ actions, observance, and knowledge of lək̓ʷəŋən history, cultures and practices
• Implement and resource the recommendations that arise from the Indigenous Relations Function research and investigation work
• Make the Reconciliation Grant a permanent part of the city’s operational budget, indexed to inflation

Victoria’s Reconciliation Dialogues

The Victoria Reconciliation Dialogues is a series of conversations that enables the community to participate in reconciliation on Lekwungen territory. Guided by members of the City Family and special guests, the seven-part series of community conversations seeks to build the community’s knowledge and understanding of reconciliation – what it is, why it is needed, and why community participation in reconciliation is important. 

The Victoria Reconciliation Dialogues provide opportunities for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to come together to share their ideas and stories, and explore how we as a community can make the culture, history and modern reality of local Indigenous Peoples become present and apparent throughout the city, and understood and valued in people’s everyday lives. The format of the conversations varies and includes storytelling, discussion and other forms of Indigenous learning.

Victoria’s Reconciliation Dialogues have forwarded the city’s Witness Reconciliation Program’s work with the Esquimalt and Songhees National Councils through creating what the municipality calls its City Family. Initially, the city struck a Task Force and modelled itself after the Province of BC and City of Vancouver’s UNDRIP Task Force. Instead, the Songhees and Esquimalt chose to request that the program revise itself into a system where the city would “witness” the reconciliation program as a member of what they called the “City Family”.  The City Family’s membership is now made up of: 

• urban aboriginal peoples who are not members of the Esquimalt’s or Songhees’ s nations, 
• members of the Esquimalt’s and Songhee’s nations 
• members of city council and city staff 

The complete series of City Family municipal responses, along with the reports and their recommendations, are hosted at “Victoria Reconciliation Dialogues.” 

• Dialogue # 1: Lekwungen Knowledge and the Land 
• Dialogue # 2: Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the City 
• Dialogue # 3: Newcomers to Canada and Reconciliation 
• Dialogue # 4: Sir John A. Macdonald in Conversation
• Dialogue # 5: Guests of Lekwungen: Urban Indigenous Experiences in Canada
• Dialogue # 6: Rethinking Heritage in the Context of Reconciliation
• Dialogue # 7: Nétsamaát: Going Forward Together

Witness Reconciliation Program

The Witness Reconciliation Program considers how the City might respond to the five recommendations highlighted by the TRCfor attention by municipalities but will also work in the broadest manner to realize, on a local scale, the TRC’s mandate to tell Canadians what happened in the Indian Residential Schools, create a permanent record of what happened in the Indian Residential Schools, and foster healing and reconciliation within Canada.”(17 September 2022)

Reconciliation Contribution Fund

In 2022, the City of Victoria established the Reconciliation Contribution Fund. This fund allows anyone to contribute a voluntary amount to the Songhees Nation and Esquimalt Nation. 

People have asked for a way for Victoria citizens to make contributions towards reconciliation.  Songhees Nation and Esquimalt Nation will use the fund to achieve the goals and aims of their communities.

The City has contributed a $200,000 Reconciliation Grant. In addition to the grant, individuals may contribute to the fund. Contributions aim to recognize that wealth generated by the City and its residents comes from the lands and waters of the lәkwәŋәn (Lekwungen) peoples. This wealth includes property ownership and associated taxes.

How Does the Fund Work

Anyone who lives on Lekwungen lands has the option to contribute to the Reconciliation Contribution Fund. The property tax notice that property owners receive with their tax notice each spring will include information about the Reconciliation Contribution Fund. Victoria property owners have the option to contribute an amount equal to 5% or 10% of their property taxes or another amount of their choosing.

This voluntary contribution is made separately from their annual property tax payment. The full value of the voluntary contribution will be provided directly to the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations.

On 2 September 2021, the Victoria City Council Agenda‘s asked (F.1.c.a.) the Union of British Columbia to: “Endorse the following resolution and direct staff to forward copies to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities and member local governments, requesting favourable consideration: Resolution: Provincial Support for Action and Implementation of Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit People Calls for Justice, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples”

City Progress Towards Fulfilling Municipal Calls to Action: 3 out of 4 = 75%

Call to Action # 43         The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Aboriginal Peoples We call upon federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal governments to fully adopt and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as the framework for reconciliation

Yes. Strategic Plan 2023-2026 Implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions Calls to Action that are directed to local governments On September 2, 2021 Council endorsed a resolution (Victoria City Council Agenda: F.1.c.a.) that will be forwarded to the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) and member local governments requesting the UBCM call on the Province of British Columbia to provide support and equitable access to funding for trauma-informed, Indigenous-led education, training, and policy guidance for local governments and associated law enforcement and emergency services to implement municipal-specific recommendations from the TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission), MMIWG2S (Missing and Murdered Women, Girls and 2-Spirit People), and UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People).”

Call to Action # 47    Royal Proclamation and Covenant of Reconciliation We call upon federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal governments to repudiate concepts used to justify European sovereignty over Indigenous peoples and lands, such as the Doctrine of Discovery and terra nullius, and to reform those laws, government policies, and litigation strategies that continue to rely on such concepts.

In progress. Strategic Plan 2023-2026 Implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions Calls to Action that are directed to local governments. No specific actions undertaken yet.

Call to Action # 57    Professional Development and Training for Public Servants We call upon federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal governments to provide education to public servants on the history of Aboriginal peoples, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal–Crown relations. This will require skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism.

Yes. Strategic Plan 2023-2026 The Victoria Reconciliation Dialogues: Dialogue 7: Nétsamaát: Going Forward Together report states that the municipal “City Family” wants Victoria to commit to: * Establish a requirement that new Council and senior staff participate in a process, such as the Kairos Blanket exercise, to learn about the truth elements of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action.  * Establish Indigenous-focused anti-racism training for Council members and staff. * Include information and training about the City’s commitment to Indigenous relationships in orientations or onboarding processes for new Council members and city staff. * Implement and resource the recommendations that arise from the Indigenous Relations Function research and investigation work.”(September 17th, 2022) See also Indigenization and Decolonization # 18, 23 and 24 above

Call to Action # 75       Missing Children and Burial Information We call upon the federal government to work with provincial, territorial, and municipal governments, churches, Aboriginal communities, former residential school students, and current landowners to develop and implement strategies and procedures for the ongoing identification, documentation, maintenance, commemoration, and protection of residential school cemeteries or other sites at which residential school children were buried. This is to include the provision of appropriate memorial ceremonies and commemorative markers to honour the deceased children.

Not applicable. There were no Indian Residential Schools (IRS) located in Victoria.  Vancouver Island’s five IRS facilities were located on: Kuper Island, Meares Island and Flores Island, as well as in Port Alberni and Alert Bay.

Call to Acton # 77        National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation We call upon provincial, territorial, municipal, and community archives to work collaboratively with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to identify and collect copies of all records relevant to the history and legacy of the residential school system, and to provide these to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

Yes. Strategic Plan 2023-2026 Implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions Calls to Action that are directed to local governments. No specific actions undertaken yet.

Other Calls to Action

Call to Action # 5        Child Welfare We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to develop culturally appropriate parenting programs for Aboriginal families
Yes. Victoria Reconciliation Dialogue’s 32 Calls to Action 16. Ensure the continuation of Recognition Dialogues, beginning with one that focuses on lək̓ʷəŋən children and youth.
Call to Action # 12       Education We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to develop culturally appropriate early childhood education programs for Aboriginal families.
No. Not explicitly mentioned.
Call to Action # 17       Language and CultureWe call upon all levels of government to enable residential school Survivors and their families to reclaim names changed by the residential school system by waiving administrative costs for a period of five years for the name-change process and the revision of official identity documents, such as birth certificates, passports, driver’s licenses, health cards, status cards, and social insurance numbers.
No. Not explicitly addressed. No recommendations for municipal identity cards. The province of British Columbia runs the Indigenous name reclamation process wherein the fees have been waived for official federal government identification documents. You must first go through a provincial name change process. To change your name in BC, see Legal Change of Name Application.
Call to Action # 22       Health We call upon those who can effect change within the Canadian health-care system to recognize the value of Aboriginal healing practices and use them in the treatment of Aboriginal patients in collaboration with Aboriginal healers and Elders where requested by Aboriginal patients.
No. Not explicitly addressed.
Call to Action #23        Health We call upon all levels of government to: i. Increase the number of Aboriginal professionals working in the health care field. ii. Ensure the retention of Aboriginal health-care providers in Aboriginal communities iii. Provide cultural competency training for all health-care professional
Yes. Strategic Plan 2023-2026. Truth and Reconciliation Priorities Implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions Calls to Action that are directed to local governments and the eight other Calls that are directed to all levels of government
Call to Action # 55       National Counci We call upon all levels of government to provide annual reports or any current data requested by the National Council for Reconciliation so that it can report on the progress towards reconciliation. The reports or data would include, but not be limited to: * The number of Aboriginal children—including Métis and Inuit children—in care, compared with non-Aboriginal children, the reasons for apprehension, and the total spending on preventive and care services by child-welfare agencies.Comparative funding for the education of First Nations children on and off reserves. * Educational and income attainments of Aboriginal peoples in Canada compared with non-Aboriginal people. * Progress on closing the gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities in a number of health indicators such as: infant mortality, maternal health, suicide, mental health, addictions, life expectancy, birth rates, infant and child health issues, chronic diseases, illness and injury incidence, and the availability of appropriate health services * Progress on eliminating the overrepresentation of Aboriginal children in youth custody over the next decade. * Progress on reducing the rate of criminal victimization of Aboriginal people, including data related to homicide and family violence victimization and other crimes
Yes. Strategic Plan 2023-2026. Truth and Reconciliation Priorities Implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions Calls to Action that are directed to local governments and the eight other Calls that are directed to all levels of government
Call to Action # 66 Youth Programs Federal government to provide multi-year funding for community-based youth programs
Yes. Victoria Reconciliation Dialogue’s 32 Calls to Action 16. Ensure the continuation of Recognition Dialogues, beginning with one that focuses on lək̓ʷəŋən children and youth.
Call to Action # 76       Missing Children and Burial Information We call upon the parties engaged in the work of documenting, maintaining, commemorating, and protecting residential school cemeteries to adopt strategies in accordance with the following principles:  * The Aboriginal community most affected shall lead the development of such strategies.  * Information shall be sought from residential school Survivors and other Knowledge Keepers in the development of such strategies.  * Aboriginal protocols shall be respected before any potentially invasive technical inspection and investigation of a cemetery site.
Not applicable. There were no Indian Residential Schools (IRS) located in Victoria.  Vancouver Island’s five IRS facilities were located on: Kuper Island, Meares Island and Flores Island, as well as in Port Alberni and Alert Bay.
Call to Action # 88 Sports and Reconciliation We call upon all levels government, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples sports halls of fame, and other relevant organizations, to provide public education that tells the national story of Aboriginal athletes in history
No. Not explicitly addressed.

NOTE: All content was submitted to the City of Victoria to ensure accuracy and currency as of the time of posting. The City of Victoria responded to our correspondence. Managing Editor: Douglas Sinclair: Publisher, Indigenous Watchdog Lead Researcher, Timothy Maton: Ph.D