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B.C. Conservative Leader Rustad vows to ’unleash potential’ for Indigenous prosperity
Rustad says his government would create a loan guarantee program for First Nations to allow full participation in large projects
The federal government has been “absent” and failing to live up to commitments to First Nations on housing and clean water, and a B.C. Conservative government would fix the problems, then send Ottawa the bill, Leader John Rustad said Monday.
Rustad said if his party wins the Oct. 19 provincial election, B.C. would partner with First Nations and “unleash the potential” for prosperity through mining, forestry and other resource projects.
He has previously pledged to repeal B.C. legislation adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and his party said in a release it would instead honour the declaration “as it was intended,” with laws advancing economic reconciliation and Indigenous autonomy.
All three party leaders turned their attention to First Nations on Monday on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
NDP Leader David Eby took his family, all dressed in orange, to an Orange Shirt Day ceremony at the University of B.C.
Green Leader Sonia Furstenau said during a news conference that B.C. had been a leader recognizing Indigenous rights, while she warned that some want to “undo that progress and go back to a paternalistic relationship” with First Nations.
Rustad, speaking in Cultus Lake, B.C., repeated that his government would uphold the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples “the way it was intended.”
The party has previously said the declaration should not be “an obstacle to development, but as a guiding principle for recognizing Indigenous rights and aspirations.”
