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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1332052
( the informer ) F I V E Q U E ST ION S 5. WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES FACING YOUR NATION? Just like anybody else, we have COVID-related challenges with how we continually engage with our community and provide support. The nation is doing online engagement, reaching out to elders, connecting with all demographics and spending a lot of time on that. But one of the things as a leader that keeps me up at night is ensuring that, when it's all done, every nation benefits from these opportunities like MST and Sen ' ákw [the site of a Squamish Nation housing development] through employment training, business procurement and business incubation. When we think about massive projects and real estate aspects, we want to be plugging our community members into that and developing a workforce strategy to ensure that we're identify- ing all the people and telling our youth, Hey go get your business degree, get your architectural degree, all those things. That's one of the biggest challenges, ensuring that we're developing and fostering capacity into the future so that our nation can occupy the field in 10 to 20 years' time. • 1 How much has the Squamish Nation changed since you were first elected councillor in December 2009? When I first got elected, it was right on the eve of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Everybody was happy—it was celebratory times, our nation was being recognized as a nation state, and there was collaboration between the four host na- tions. But one of the greatest things I've seen since then was building on that excite- ment of the 2010 Games and the relationship between the host nations—the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh, and the Lil'wat in Pemberton. Building on that energy was the catalyst for the creation to the MST brand and MST Development Corporation. We saw the power and the benefit of working together. 2 And now MST is one of the province's most powerful organizations. How will it wield that power? Where the power comes from is the courage and willingness and ability for the First Nations to come together for the collective good of all of our communities—it's transforma- tional. We all have our differ- ences, but we also fall on our teachings from long ago to say, What did we do when raiders came to our communities? How did we defend our territories? And all of our teachings say that we would band together because we were tied through kinship, through relations. It's for the collective, and we've built on that because we're liv- ing in a system that has divided us over the last 50 years. I think about the 150 years of resiliency and tenacity and generations of effort from the collective three nations to get our land back. What do we do CHRIS (SYETA'XTN) LEWIS The Squamish Nation councillor and spokesperson outlines his vision for his community as well as for the province by Nathan Caddell JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021 BCBUSINESS 17 with that responsibility, with that opportunity? It's our re- sponsibility, like our ancestors did 150 years ago, to create a legacy of benefits and prosper- ity for the next 150 years. 3 MST, along with the City of Vancouver, advocated for the Broadway Subway Project to go to UBC, to no avail. Is that a missed opportunity? Absolutely. I think the provin- cial and federal governments need to fund transit expan- sion to help us build a better community. Vancouver is a postmodern city where there's no major highway coming into the downtown core. So we need to figure out how we move people, and I think these long-term investments around the Broadway Subway to UBC could really improve connections throughout the city. There's no better time to invest in our city and get stra- tegic investment around that to foster the growth of Vancou- ver, UBC and our nations, not just from a Squamish perspec- tive, from an MST perspective. We're in a strategic position where we own the Jericho Lands and can also be a part of the solution and creation of a more sustainable kind of city. 4 How do you rate John Horgan's job as premier? Were you happy to see his NDP government win a majority? We seek to have positive working relationships with all levels of government, based on respect for nations' rights. As it relates to the NDP or John Horgan's performance, I think they need to follow through on their commit- ments to Indigenous Peoples. With UNDRIP, they had the big legislation that passed unani- mously in Victoria. But now they have to provide some clarity in terms of what it ac- tually means, and it involves treating Indigenous commu- nities like true governments; it involves dealing with the unresolved land question and returning land back to Indigenous communities like MST. PREVIOUSLY Board member, MST Development Corp.; policy adviser, BC Assembly of First Nations LAST BOOK I READ The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King FAVOURITE TV SHOW The Big Bang Theory HOBBY Hunting and fishing FAVOURITE CONCERTS U2 and the Killers FAVOURITE SPOT IN B.C. Backcountry of Squamish and the Sea-to-Sky Corridor