MST Development Corp. is about First Nations becoming 'powerful in our territories once again'
Credit to Author: Derrick Penner| Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2020 02:28:11 +0000
Land holdings of 65 hectares spread across the region make the First Nations-owned MST Development Corp. “the richest landowners in the city of Vancouver,” Tsleil-Waututh Chief Leah George-Wilson said to a Greater Vancouver Board of Trade audience Monday.
“Well, we were before you all came here” too, she reminded the developers, executives and professionals gathered for a more formal effort at engagement between the board of trade and the three First Nations behind MST.
A full house of more than 400 packed the Waterfront Ballroom at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel for the event George-Wilson characterized as a step toward reconciliation as MST Development asserts itself as a force for development for the respective partners.
MST is a joint venture between the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh. Each of them has either developed or embarked on real estate developments of their own, said Squamish Coun. Khelsilem, and MST offers the potential to play an even bigger role in partnership with non-Indigenous communities.
“MST is all about putting our faces on our territories,” George-Wilson said, “for people to understand that MST communities were here long before the city of Vancouver, Burnaby, North Vancouver or West Vancouver.”
For too many years, George-Wilson said, First Nations people weren’t “at the table” for discussions about what was going to occur on their land.”
“And I think this is the opportunity to bring us to the table and for all of the people to recognize and understand that we bring skills to the table. It’s the opportunities, the ultimate opportunity, for that recognition and reconciliation that both levels of government talk about putting into action,” she said.
Between MST being listed as No. 1 on Vancouver Magazine’s Power 50 list of most influential entities in the city and the Squamish launching its Senakw development, a 6,000-unit project that it wants to build in partnership with developer Westbank, or simply the province’s recognition of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Khelsilem said First Nations are gaining stature.
“We are without a doubt becoming powerful in our territory once again,” he said, “and this testament to the power of our people always without a doubt cannot happen without the trail-blazing work that’s done by our previous ancestors.”
Khelsilem said part of his purpose for Monday’s presentation was to convey to the audience that they want to “have a productive relationship with all the interests that are happening within our territory,” and accomplish things that benefit all sides.
“I think our vision is really to try and accomplish a lot in a relatively short amount of time,” Khelsilem said, with respect to dealing with problems such as the housing crisis.
As First Nations leaders Khelsilem said they’re under pressure to deliver on those problems within their own communities, so they’re “not waiting for the government to do things for us on those, those crises (where) we’re really interested in doing a lot quickly.”
Musqueam Indian Band Coun. Howard Grant added that MST is about honouring the decisions of their ancestors that set the Musqueam on a path that got them to where they are now, but the path forward isn’t just about business.
“The bottom line isn’t just about dollars-and-cents,” Grant said. “It’s about having the ability to, to provide the economic engine for your governance structure and to support your people,” but doing so in a way that is sustainable.
And George-Wilson said they know from past experience that they’ll need partners as they advance their plans.
“All three of us, hashtag MST we’re working, we’re working together,” George-Wilson said. “So we’re coming from this whole idea and concept of (going from) colonialism to unity and prosperity. And that’s where we are.”