District of Taylor: Land acknowledgement finalized, Library seeking additional space
Taylor's land acknowledgement has heart says Graziano
“The District of Taylor recognizes with respect this traditional territory of Treaty 8. We honour the deep connection to the land and water, where everyone’s rights are respected, and opportunities are available for all to thrive.”
After over a year of work and consultation, this is the message that the District of Taylor’s First Nations Land Acknowledgement Development Committee recommends the District use as its land acknowledgement, which will be read before meetings and events in the District as well as appearing on signage near the Visitor Information Centre.
“In consultation with First Nations and other individuals who work with First Nations on a regular basis, at the request of council, the committee has quite extensively gone through the process of developing a land acknowledgement that we feel is worthy for use with the district,” said Interim Deputy Corporate Office, Mike Whalley who presented the land acknowledgement report to the committee of the whole on April 22.
Councillor Desirae Graziano described the process of developing the land acknowledgement, where the committee reached out to all neighbouring Nations, receiving official feedback from Doig River First Nation as well as Treaty 8, and had some discussions with the Chiefs of Halfway River First Nation and West Moberly First Nation.
They also reviewed land acknowledgements from other communities, which highlighted some challenges in creating a heartfelt acknowledgement that the District could convey in a meaningful way.
Finally, the land acknowledgement committee also sought feedback from Taylor residents, following their last meeting.
Graziano said that one of the issues that was raised was the use of the word “unceded”, which was used in the original draft acknowledgement.
“This is a very controversial term,” she said. “Some Nations like it, some don’t. Some want me to use it, some don’t. The community had some choice words for me regarding it.”
Graziano decided to take that word out and create a more general statement, to avoid controversy.
After more consultation and discussion, the committee came up with the statement above. During the committee of the whole meeting, council made one further change, from “the traditional territory” to “this traditional territory”.
The final acknowledgement Graziano said, “has heart, it talks about the water which was something that was important to me, the opportunities for all of us to thrive. That’s the idea behind the Treaty, that we’re all supposed to work together in unity and be neighbourly.”
Library looking to old Medical Clinic to expand programming
Interest in the programming options offered at the Taylor Public Library is growing, and with it, the need for more space.
Sherry Murphy from the public library board sent a letter to the District of Taylor with a proposal to use the unassigned space in the former Medical Building. One of the rooms in the building is already used by the library – for storage and the front reception area for weekly Seniors’ activities – and in the proposal, the library would like to use the entire main floor of the building.
In her letter, Murphy outlined the library’s vision for the space, which includes using the larger back room as a multi-purpose room as a space for Youth and Teen activities; Parenting Workshops; Children’s Pro-D Day Activities; small group meetings; discussion groups; and games evenings.
The smaller room could be used as a space for Taylor artisans to showcase their work and would be open to public viewing at the same time as regular programming is taking place in the building.
In the proposal, only the main floor of the building was mentioned as the Peace Crossing Historical Society is using the basement.
Interim Deputy Corporate Office, Mike Whalley brought the report which contained the library’s request to Taylor council’s committee of the whole on April 22, recommending that the space be advertised through a Request for Expression of Interest. This will enable the district to measure the community’s desire to utilize the space, before making a decision.
Whalley’s report noted that in February 2024, Corporate Services put out a Request for Expression of Interest in the old medical building as a shared working space, and received submissions from Peace Crossing Historical Society, the Taylor Public Library and Taylor Community Service Centre. While the Taylor Community Service Centre wasn’t able to move forward with their proposal, the Library has seen success in the programs that they’re operating in the space.
“Senior management has had some conversations with regards to it, and the general consensus on this side of the fence is, that maybe as we did a year ago, go out for inputs and see if there’s anybody in the public that’s interested in utilizing the space before we discuss any further,” Whalley said.
Councillor Desirae Graziano wondered if the use of the building could be aligned with their potential goal for the space, “is it arts and culture, is it a music lesson space, something that kind of falls into the same category as the library so we could unify it somehow.”
She added that the idea of using it as a workspace, with Wi-Fi and so on is ideal, but maybe other options needed to be looked at.
“The idea, I think, is to get somebody that’s going to pay to use it,” Mayor Brent Taillefer said.
“I would like to see the ability to co-exist with what the library is doing in there, especially the Senior’s programs. There’s a big value to the community for that.”
Corporate Services will put something together, said Whalley, and bring it back for the May 5 meeting.