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Sankey joins Rustad for reconciliation announcement in Lower Mainland

Sankey equates current government policies to putting the social cart before the economic horse
sankey-cultus-lake
North Coast-Haida Gwaii Conservative candidate Chris Sankey speaks during an announcement by Conservative leader John Rustad on Sept. 30 in Cultus Lake, B.C.

North Coast-Haida Gwaii candidate Chris Sankey joined Conservative Party leader John Rustad on Sept. 30 in the Lower Mainland in pledging to partner with First Nations to "unleash the potential" for prosperity through mining, forestry and other resource projects. 

Rustad, speaking in Cultus Lake, B.C. on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, said a Conservative government would honour the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples "as it was intended" with laws advancing economic reconciliation and Indigenous autonomy.

Sankey, a member of Lax Kw'alaams, said he supports Rustad's economic reconciliation policies saying it is an issue that is close to his heart.

"You can't have the economic horse without the social cart," he said. "In this particular instance, we've had the social cart try to pull the economic horse, and it's not working. We need to focus on what makes sense and get back to the grassroots movement of our people."

He said First Nations people understand economic development and would be the ones to come forward with the solutions and tools to drive economic development.

"As I've always said to my friends in Haida Gwaii and Heiltsuk in the Ts-msyen and the municipalities in between, what does your economic horse look like to pull your social cart?

"For me, it's about alignment. When you have alignment amongst First Nations people and the communities, you de-risk the projects, whatever the project may be for that Nation. When you de-risk projects, you attract international and domestic investment and, in return, we're able to bring our voices, not just in our backyards, but to the rest of the world.

Rustad also said the federal government has been "absent" and failing to live up to commitments to First Nations on housing and clean water. He promised a provincial Conservative government would fix those problems and send the bill to Ottawa.

"John's policy embraces indigenous culture. It embraces self-sufficiency, it embraces independence so that we don't have to rely on government assistance or EI or welfare," Sankey said.

"That's not who we are. Much like rural Canada, Indigenous people think the same way. We hunt, we fish, we trap. We're about culture and religion and family and environment. We take care of each other, that's who we are, and that's the Conservative movement."

- With files from Canadian Press



Thom Barker

About the Author: Thom Barker

After graduating with a geology degree from Carleton University and taking a detour through the high tech business, Thom started his journalism career as a fact-checker for a magazine in Ottawa in 2002.
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