EDITORIAL – Sometimes, government can make ‘reconciliation’ a bit ridiculous

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

RECONCILIATION IS something we must take seriously, because it’s important, but sometimes it can get a bit silly because governments have a way of messing it up.

Case in point is Okanagan Falls, a community of about 2,200 people on the south end of Skaha Lake in the Okanagan Valley. I grew up just a few miles from there. As kids, we often swam at the OK Falls beach.

It’s a pretty spot but it’s gone through some tough times. Recently, it’s been doing well, and a lot of its residents want more local control of development, so they narrowly voted in favour of incorporation a few months ago.

Since then, the provincial government has thrown a wrench in the works, hinting it might require Okanagan Falls to change its name to an Indigenous one when letters patent are completed.

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The reason, it seems, is B.C.’s adoption of UNDRIP, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People and its own Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. Consultation on policies is a big part of it and the powers that be in Victoria are apparently of a mind that it includes giving new municipalities indigenous names.

They neglected to mention this when residents were voting on whether to incorporate. The really ridiculous part is that “Okanagan” is an indigenous word for an entire peoples and their language.

But it’s clearly not what the government has in mind. Renaming mountains, parks and streets is a big thing in B.C. but this is the first time there’s been a push to force an indigenous name on a newly constituted town.

There’s irony in the fact that residents voted for incorporation because they want more say in their own affairs, yet the provincial government doesn’t want them to decide for themselves the name of their own community.

So, many of them want incorporation plans to be shelved. They’ve been told it’s too late, that since the vote was approved the only way to overturn it is to go ahead with incorporation, then hold a referendum to unincorporate.

If that’s the case, it would make more sense for the province just to keep stalling on incorporation, which it’s already done for several months. Just put it in a shelf to gather dust.

The only thing that insisting on a name change will do is to cause unnecessary friction between indigenous and non-indigenous residents that will accomplish the opposite of what reconciliation is supposed to do.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.