For Homalco First Nation, healing is central to economic development journey
Chief Darren Blaney of Homalco First Nation is on a mission to address the economic marginalization of his people.
This marginalization is the product of the harms of colonization, spanning generations, including forced relocations and the impacts of the residential schools system.
Prior to the introduction of Smallpox in British Columbia around 1780, Homalco numbered around 10,000 citizens, says Chief Blaney. After the scourge, they numbered only 87. The Nation was also held back by forced moves and residential schools in the 1900s. The Homalco people established their new reserve in Campbell River in the 1990s, following a land exchange with the Province of British Columbia.
The Nation’s territory stretches from south of Hornby Island, west through Johnstone Strait, north to Tatla Lake and east to Bishop River. The community has approximately 470 citizens in 85 households.
In recent years, Homalco has achieved numerous economic development objectives, including establishing a water taxi, developing rental properties downtown in Campbell River, and securing a heli-ski license from the province.
The Nation has also secured $1 million for the development of a resort and is working to bring additional partners onto that project and raise the total funds needed to make it a reality.
“We are also getting a dock put back in our old community that government forced us out of,” he said. “And we’re going to tear the old school down and put a trauma treatment centre there.”
The trauma treatment centre is key to moving ahead with community development. “All the economic development we do, we come up against trauma all the time,” the chief explains. “To get going on these bigger projects, we have to start to work on healing our people.”
The Nation has already been given $3 million for the treatment centre, with efforts underway to secure additional funding.
“The planning we did with the FMB opened up these opportunities for us,” he says, noting that when he was elected in 2017, the Nation had only $280 in its bank account. A forensic found $1.5 million missing.
“Because we are small and our lack of , an accountant took advantage of us, and other Nations,” he explains.
At that time, Homalco’s bear tours company was $500,000 in ; its logging company owed $1 million. The school district was owed money.
Through hard work and fresh thinking, the Nation turned things around. A first step was to secure funding to research traditional territories that it had been trying to acquire for about 26 years.
“We just signed off on a deal to get that land from a forest company,” says Chief Blaney. “The 390 acres is now added to our small reserve in Campbell River. We can do economic development along the highway now.”
Having achieved Financial Performance Certification from the FMB, Homalco plans to access funding from the FNFA to “get some infrastructure at the corner of the highway and start some leasing and exercising some tax authority,” he says.
“We are looking at all different options. “Certification has opened up a lot of doors for us to build our economy.”
The overarching goal is to generate economic activity to benefit future generations. “So at some point with all our businesses we will be setting up trust funds. One will be for stewardship for our territory, another for our culture and language. We’ll also have a trust fund for healing and a legal defense fund for our territory.
“We will be in control of our own future. We won’t have to worry about funding from any government. That is what my goal is.”