Council holds historic meeting at Chippewa Park

City council made history Monday night by holding part of its meeting at Chippewa Park for the first time in the park’s history.

Council held the meeting during National Aborignal Day festivities to approve a commitment to strengthen the relationship between Thunder Bay and its urban First Nations population. City Aboriginal liaison Anna Gibbon said the historic commitment is only the second one of its kind in Canada. The first of its kind took place in Edmonton.

"In many ways this commitment is really honouring the history, honouring our protocol and really communicating to the Aboriginal people that the city is serious about this relationship," said Gibbon.

Gibbon said the commitment will help to make the city be more accommodating to First Nation people. With Aboriginal people requiring their own unique needs, Gibbon said people may oftentimes believe that city services and plans are inclusive when they’re not.

"When you look at public spaces for example, Thunder Bay has been built on Fort William First Nation historical territory. Do we have anything in our community that reflects the knowledge that First Nation people were here before anyone else came?" asked Gibbon asked. "It’s an opportunity to say ‘Are we being as inclusive as we possibly can?"

Mayor Lynn Peterson said strengthening the relationship with First Nations people in the city is important because the contributions made by the local Aboriginal population is so great.

"We need to do a lot of work," Peterson said. "This is a good first step, another step, in terms of making sure those relationships are as strong as they can be."