Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations have looked after their respective territories for millennia and continue that work today, yet the City of Vancouver has historically failed to recognize their Title and Rights.

Only recently, thanks to OneCity Vancouver City Councillor Christine Boyle’s Motion, co-developed with Indigenous partners, to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), has the City begun to respect these rights and there is a long way to go towards healing the harm that’s been done. OneCity acknowledges the Title and Rights of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and will turn UNDRIP into actions here in the City.

We will challenge the stark inequities that face the Urban Indigenous community, including the urgent need for Indigenous housing. On City Council, School Board and Park Board, OneCity will celebrate Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh culture, language and history. Together, we will build a city which is welcoming, inclusive, affordable and safe for Indigenous peoples, women, youth and elders.

Correct social inequities facing Indigenous peoples 

1. Prioritize Indigenous participation in procurement for all city projects.
2. Apply an equity lens to budgeting decisions, ensuring that critical resources for Indigenous communities are not perceived as “optional” investments in a City of Reconciliation.
3. Work with provincial and federal governments to fully implement Jordan’s Principle to ensure Indigenous children and youth benefit equally from city programming and expenditures. 
4. Work with Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh, the Vancouver Port Authority, and the Urban Indigenous community to build an Indigenous Healing Lodge at Crab Park.
5. Work with the provincial and federal governments to support the provision of Indigenous healthcare workers and retain as many as possible operating in the Downtown Eastside and across the city. 
6. Develop a city plan to collect and publish data on the criminal victimization of Indigenous people, including data related to homicide and family violence. 
7. Urgently implement and adequately fund the recommendations of the June 2022 report to Council in response to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
8. Ensure Indigenous peoples living in unsuitable, inadequate or unaffordable housing in Vancouver receive proportionate funding that reflects the city’s higher cost of living. 
9. Support the maintenance of existing homes managed by Indigenous housing providers.
10.  Prioritize employment opportunities for Indigenous peoples.
11. Develop targets for subsidized Indigenous-owned and operated housing units over the next 10 years, which must include targets for land allocations.
12. Recognizing that UNDRIP Article 23 states: “Indigenous peoples have the right to determine and develop priorities and strategies for exercising their right to development. In particular, Indigenous peoples have the right to be actively involved in developing and determining health, housing and other economic and social programmes affecting them and, as far as possible, to administer such programmes through their own institutions.” OneCity will co-develop a support plan that identifies and implements  Indigenous housing priorities, giving Indigenous people better access to housing.
13. Fund culturally appropriate wraparound services and encourage cultural recognition within housing.
14. Modernize social housing frameworks to remove impediments for housing providers raising revenues and disincentives for tenants to find income.
15. Remove barriers to accessing housing for Indigenous people.
16. Work with the provincial and federal governments to properly fund the Aboriginal Housing Management Association and to establish a fourth stream within the National Housing Strategy for Indigenous people living in urban settings.
17. Fully support Indigenous-led justice and community safety initiatives, such as the Bear Clan Patrol called for in the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre's Red Women Rising report.
18. Reallocate funds from police-based responses to health and social issues, and invest instead in community organizations and outreach services trained to provide mental health support or help with substance use issues.
19. Work with provincial and federal governments to ensure those with substance use disorders have ready access to harm reduction supplies, services, and supports.
20. Fund services that allow people who are unhoused to store their belongings, and direct city crews to avoid disposing of people’s possessions.
21. Demand greater municipal control and democratic oversight over the VPD’s annual budget and training related to equity, diversity, and inclusion.
22. End street checks.
23. Explore programs to support safe schools to replace the terminated Vancouver School Board’s School Liaison Officer Program.
24. Work with the provincial government to standardize and collect race-based and demographic data to address systemic discrimination in policing.
25. Include people who use drugs on city advisory committees and in civic engagement.
26. Support peer-led organizations that build social connections and a sense of belonging among people who use drugs and within the broader community.
27. Establish more overdose response teams, including people with relationships and experience in the communities affected by the drug poisoning emergency.
28. Call on the provincial government to increase the availability of trauma-informed and culturally safe mental health and substance use services.
29. Support next steps from the Park Board’s colonial audit.