When I was first elected in 2002, there was no Orange Shirt Day and no National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Orange Shirt Day began in 2013, and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was established federally in 2021. Orange Shirt Society

My interest in building relationships with Indigenous people came from believing that local government had a responsibility to build better relationships.

Early in my time on Central Saanich Council, I helped initiate Community-to-Community Forums with Tsawout and Tsartlip. At the time, there had been too little communication between our councils. The work began quite simply: going to meet people, talking, getting to know one another, and making clear that this was not going to be a one-time exercise.

That experience was later included as a case study in the Guide to Community to Community Forums in British Columbia. The guide describes how we held some of those early meetings in one another’s homes rather than at Municipal Hall, because building relationships mattered as much as holding the formal forum itself.

That relationship-building also led to practical work. I worked with Mavis Underwood and others to bring the issue of bus service into Tsawout to the Greater Victoria Transit Commission. The bus had been going past the community. Today it goes in. Gwen Underwood later recalled both the Council-to-Council work and the importance of getting that transit connection established.

The work continued. In 2015, I brought forward a motion calling for Central Saanich to initiate another formal meeting with Tsartlip and Tsawout, including pursuing Community-to-Community Forum funding. Central Saanich Meetings In 2016, I also brought the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action before Central Saanich Council, and Council unanimously supported moving ahead with work on the recommendations relevant to local government.

I do not mention these things because I think reconciliation is something that can be checked off as accomplished, or for political point scoring.

I mention them because Orange Shirt Day gives us a chance to reflect not only on history, but also on relationships and what we actually do with what we have learned... all of us. 

For me, that work has always been about what happens between commemorative days: showing up, listening, building trust, learning from one another, and finding practical ways to work together.

That work is not finished, and it matters what we do next.