Manitoba legislature will finally adopt land acknowledgment

The Manitoba Legislature will finally adopt a land acknowledgment to recognize the provincial seat of government exists on the ancestral land of Indigenous people.

It is something already done by the province's universities, professional sports teams, several municipal governments, businesses and other agencies.

Premier Kelvin Goertzen said it will be in place by the next session. He has created a committee of three MLAs, led by former Indigenous Relations minister Eileen Clarke, to engage in that consultation and report back by Oct. 22.

"Its time has come and it's important to have that in the Manitoba Legislature, but it's also important to get it right," Goertzen said in explaining why it won't immediately be in place.

"It probably should have been done a while ago. There's a lot of different things that happen in government and I'm not making excuses," he said, acknowledging that, as House leader, people might point the finger at him for not doing it sooner.

"Sometimes there are events that happen that help clarify things for individuals and that you have experiences that help to crystallize the need for certain things."

For Goertzen, that event was the discovery of unmarked graves on a former residential school site in British Columbia in July, followed by a meeting with residential school survivors from Manitoba and the lowering of flags at the legislative building.

"It was a moving experience for myself and for my family and we learned a lot that day, and we've learned a lot since. I'm glad that we're moving in the right direction now," he said. 

Asked if it would be a daily acknowledgment in the legislature, made around the same time as the prayer, Goertzen said he would support that but wants consultations to work that out.

He also wants the acknowledgment to be part of the text in annual reports of government.

Consultation plan 'quite colonial': NDP

Reacting later in the day to Goertzen's comments, NDP MLA Nahanni Fontaine said she and NDP Leader Wab Kinew have been pushing for a land acknowledgment since 2018.

In spite of letters, emails and discussions between the Opposition NDP and governing PCs, nothing was done, she said.

Her party provided wording but was told it was too long. They shortened it, "but the discussions just fell off by the wayside," Fontaine said.

"So to hear today the premier announce a consultative process that's going to be led by three non-Indigenous people is pretty disingenuous … and quite colonial."

She called it another attempt to stall the process while making it appear as if the government "is on this road to reconciliation."

"In fact, it's the antithesis to that. We can get it done today … and then we can start it on Oct. 6."

The wording for a proper acknowledgment has been agreed on by residential school survivors and families of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls, and it has been used for well over a decade now, Fontaine said.

During the last legislative session, a resolution was brought forward by the NDP to establish a land acknowledgment. PC MLA Alan Lagimodiere was among those who spoke against it, Fontaine said.

He was later appointed minister of Indigenous reconciliation and northern relations.

"I find it, as an Indigenous woman, incredibly disrespectful to just kick this down a further way."