Don't take sides.
Let the craven mow down the poseurs:
On top of their property taxes, Victoria residents and business owners could soon have the opportunity to pay a voluntary “reconciliation contribution” that will go towards local First Nations.
The move comes according to a council member motion before the City of Victoria’s Committee of the Whole, titled Opportunity for Victoria Property Owners to Make Reconciliation Contribution.
“In consultation with the City’s Chief Financial Officer, we have determined that it is administratively simple for the City to create an opportunity for residents and businesses, if they so wish, to contribute an additional voluntary amount based on their property taxes to be provided alongside the City’s Reconciliation Grant to the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations,” councillors wrote.
“Property owners will have the option of contributing amounts equal to 5% or 10% of their property taxes, or another amount of their choosing.”
A lawyer for the British Columbia government says it admits members of the Nuchatlaht First Nation are descended from a historical Indigenous collective, but the lineage through a family of chiefs doesn’t establish Aboriginal title to an area its claiming.
Jeff Echols told a B.C. Supreme Court trial on Tuesday that the government disputes the First Nation's claim to 230 square kilometres of land on Nootka Island, off Vancouver Island's west coast.
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