I am very pleased to see…

I am very pleased to see that the words "are encouraged to" has been replaced by "shall" when it comes to planning authorities consulting with Indigenous communities.

1.2.2 Planning authorities shall engage with Indigenous communities and coordinate on land use planning matters.

This is long overdue. It is good to see the government encouraging this reconciliatory move.

However, it is absolutely essential that the Ministry provide adequate funding to Indigenous communities so they can increase their staffing and expertise to be able to adequately respond to such requests from planning authorities.
Not providing funding for this work would set Indigenous communities up for failure and feelings of frustration on their part, and open them up to attacks and criticism from non-Indigenous peoples. It could inflame racist attacks, such as occurred at Caledonia.

So it is absolutely essential that the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing provide funding to Indigenous planners and researchers to enable them to meet this important and crucial new requirement.