UNDRIP Task Force Annual Report

Good morning, good morning. Before we get into some of the opening remarks, I just want to open up with a song just to ground us in the journey that we've always been working on for the last five years. So this one is called Our Nature Song, and it speaks to the four stages of life, the four directions, the four seasonal rounds that we all... You know, understand, you know, we have the winter. We do a lot of thinking in the house community, a lot of transferring of knowledge. And then spring and summer comes. That's when we're going out to the broader communities to create stronger alliances and mutual respect and relationships. But we're also sharing the journey along with you. And we are committed to that journey to this day and for the many years moving forward.

Oh, hello.

Oh, hello. Hello. Ha-he-la-ha. Ha-ha-ha. Ha-he-la-ha-hey.

Oh, he-lo. He-lo. Oh, he-lo.

Ha, ha, ha, ha, hey, la, ha, ha, hey. Haa, haa, haa, haa, haa, haa, haa, haa, haa, haa, haa.

I am from the Musqueam Nation. I'm an elected councillor and I'm really pleased to be before you this morning. I wish to acknowledge that our communities are very much connected by strong blood ties. My grandmother comes from the TTsleil-Waututh First Nation. My paternal grandfather comes from the Squamish First Nation. My grandfathers come from the Musqueam Nation. That our people occupied and cared for this beautiful place that's now called Vancouver by following the laws, the ways, the policies, the respect for the land to care for this place in a way that ensured our continuity. So we're super pleased to be with you today.

Awesome. Thank you.

So often when we look at a canoe, it can mean many, many things for our people. It represents us today that we're on this journey together. And journeys aren't always A to B, linear. They're meandering. And sometimes you're against headwinds, a storm, big wakes, but it's how we all paddle together in that canoe that get us through that challenge and eventually to the end goal. It also is used to paddling together in sync. There's no lily dipping, we call it. We're actually in synchronized and we're able to paddle as one. If we're out of sync, you're paddling the weight of the entire canoe with all the people in it. But what we're doing is we're making strong progress, and that means we're in sync and we're able to overcome such barriers. But we also look at the people that are in the canoe. We often reflect, it's the nations, it's our partnership, it's the four governments all have a seat in that canoe. It also can represent all of the steering committee, the task force, all of the wonderful team of our nations, but also the City of Vancouver staff that helped move this report along. And it's to provide that vessel, that harmony, and that good spirit and good energy of the work that we're all doing. Some seats might be empty. It's not because we didn't have enough paddlers. It's because we're also honoring our ancestors. They're on the journey with us and helping us guide us. And in that spirit, you know, I, I think, uh, counselor young for mentioning Kaya Polano, you know, if we look at the journey that we've been on together with the city of Vancouver, it's been over five years ago and certain councils change and same with city counselors change. And, uh, There's a few of us that are on from the very beginning, and I'm one of them. And I learned so much from Kai Apolano. And I must say, he's still in this room. He's helping us guide. He's helping us go through this process. And he has one of his descendants here, his grandson, Connor Grant. So in a way, Howard is still here guiding us. And I wanted to just honor that and say that. This beautiful canoe graphic design was created by a Slow Tooth member, Olivia George, you know, and again, just to provide that cultural guidance of the journey that we're embarking on. So I just wanted to share a little bit of that. When we go, I know some of you have already seen this in some of our other presentations, but again, it's just a backgrounder. In September 2007, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, known as UNDRIP. This declaration outlines the universal human rights as they apply to the unique situations of Indigenous peoples of the world. This document was developed through intense negotiations over a 25-year period at the United Nations. and represents minimum standards for the survival, dignity, and well-being of Indigenous peoples. UNDRIP addresses both individual and collective rights, covering cultural rights and identity, rights to education, health, employment, language, and the right of Indigenous peoples to remain distinct and pursue their own priorities in economic, social, and cultural well-being and development. UNDRIP does not create new rights, but rather recognizes rights that have always existed and that are inherent.

This slide highlights the city's early foundational work on UNDRIP. In 2022, the UNDRIP task force developed the city's strategic strategy, identifying 79 calls to action. I must say, it's also very special and unique to say that this, you know, was momentous for us. It was a trajectory. of it being the first in the world and known as the city of reconciliation. And that's always great to be reminded of the great successes that we have done together. The work laid the groundwork for a coordinated citywide approach to implementing UNDRIP. Working from the UNDRIP strategy, the task force developed the first five-year UNDRIP action plan. The action plan sequenced 32 priority actions for implementation between 2024 and 2028. This marked the transition from commitment and planning into structured implementation. The focus throughout has been always on co-development, mutual respect, relationship building, and accountability.

On this slide is our governance structure. What makes this distinct is not just what we are doing, it is how we are doing it. While councils from all four partners remain ultimately the decision makers for their respective offices and communities, we are working on a consensus-based model to implement shared goals that drive benefits for all communities. This model runs from the elected level all the way through operational staff. The intergovernmental table brings together elected representatives from all four partners, meeting quarterly to provide direction and oversight. The city is represented by Councillors Sarah Kirby-Young, Clausen, Zhao, and Orr, alongside two elected leaders from each of the Musqueam, Squamish, and TTsleil-Waututh nations, including colleagues joining us here today. Senior staff from all four partners form the steering committee, meeting monthly to translate intergovernmental table direction into coordinated work plans, manage reporting, and track outcomes. Doing the day-to-day work are 18 action groups, staff teams with technical... and operational expertise drawn from all four partners each focus on a specific action group and deliverables within the plan turning a commitment into concrete outputs And internally, the city maintains a robust corporate coordinated table focusing on efficiency and coordination. Senior staff champions and implementation leads from every department, including Vancouver Parks Board, Vancouver Public Library, and Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services, meet quarterly to align on implementation and continuously strengthen our internal processes. This structure is what makes the sustained accountable progress possible.

The action groups involve Musqueam, Squamish, TTsleil-Waututh, and Vancouver staff from all departments and all areas of expertise. The action plan includes deliverables related to intergovernmental relations, education, economic development, housing, culture, environment, communications, and public safety. Each action group is coordinated by city staff, with nation staff being fully involved in the planning, development and implementation of each deliverable. Action groups meet regularly as required by their respective deliverables, including unique relationship building exercises like community walking tours and external expert guest speakers.

The City of Vancouver released its first UNDRIP Annual Report in June 2025. That report showcased the progress during the first six months of the implementation from June to December 2024. Annual reporting provides Council and the public with a clear picture of what progress has been made, where the work is still underway. Today's report will be the first report that covers the full calendar year. of this implementation from January to December 2025.

Together, these reports support consistent public awareness, council oversight, and long-term alignment with UNDRIP commitments.

In the spring of 2024, all four councils endorsed the UNDRIP action plan for 2024 to 2028. 2025 marked the first full year of implementation, moving us from planning into practice. Action groups have made meaningful progress, completing draft frameworks, piloting new processes, developing new content and resources that embed UNDRIP principles into city work. In late 2025, action groups undertook a formal annual review of their action charters. This allowed groups to right-size the timelines, clarify outcomes, and ensure the work is achievable and well-sequenced. Importantly, progress is being built on stronger relationships and increased trust, allowing the city and Indigenous partners to work in co-development model and on shared deliverables. Overall, this year reflects a shift from commitment to sustained relationship-based implementation.

Reading the annual report is intended to be simple and clear. This report is intentionally aligned with last year's format, making it easier to track year-over-year progress. It provides a high-level progress overview and action group-specific updates on deliverables. For each action group, the report outlines what work has been completed to date and what the next steps are moving forward. Progress is assessed across very different... types of work using a five-stage progress indicator, recognizing that implementation looks different across policy, service delivery, and relationship-based work. The in-progress category has been refined further, now distinguishing between initial, mid-phase, and closing stages for greater transparency, clarity.

I also want to just, in case people are wondering, we are missing some of our relatives from the Squamish Nation. Just wanted to let you know that they send their regrets. They're in an all-day council, but they're here in spirit and commitment to this relationship.

Thank you, Auntie, for sharing those great words and updates. So here we have the progress indicator developed, lays out five progress stages based on where each action group falls within the process of collaboration and delivering outputs and outcomes. As you can see, the scale from stage one, laying the groundwork, including introductory relationships, development, internal inventory, and scoping, through various stages of planning, development, implementation to end-to-end of building on accomplishments and where we envision our teams collaboratively monitoring and improving upon successes. We have tried to emphasize through this progress indicator how crucial partnerships is to this work and our intention to follow through on our goals and build continuous improvement. into each output and outcome. The next slides, this is a great analytical slides for all of us, like graphics. This graphic shows status and deliverables across all action groups, reflecting the diversity of work areas. Some action groups, such as the very first one, capacity building, training, and governance are further along due to their earlier groundwork. Others are in scoping or sequencing phases, particularly where work depends on internal capacities, partner readiness, co-development timelines, broader system changes. Importantly, slower progress does not indicate lack of effort. It reflects deliberate pacing, relationship-based decision-making, the need to align with Indigenous partners rather than rushing deliverables. This view allows the task force to see where momentum is strong and where additional time, coordination, and support may be needed. Overall, the program is assessed at stage three, working together. Paddling together, signaling active collaboration and advanced from earlier stages of planning. Of the 88 total deliverables, 11 are complete, 33 are in progress, and four are in scoping. 25 deliverables have been intentionally sequenced for later, often to ensure proper alignment with the nation's and city initiatives. A smaller number of deliverables are in revision or partner review, paused due to capacity dependencies, or to redirect resources, for example, FIFA activities. referred directly to partners, specifically our partners at the VPD. Taken together, this reflects a realistic implementation approach, one that prioritizes careful consideration, relationship building, and collaboration over speed. This snapshot shows steady forward momentum on our shared goals. This bar graph represents the year-over-year progress from the first six months of implementation in 2024 to the first full year of implementation in 2025. Seven more deliverables were completed in 2025, nearly four times increase from the previous year.

The in-progress indicator stayed flat at 31, despite completing eight more items than the prior year. Our active in-progress pipeline did not shrink. New items entered the active queue from scoping stage, suggesting a sustained way of advancing work. Deliverables in scoping dropped from 24 to just 4, which means roughly 20 deliverables that were exploratory in 2024-2025 got assigned an active status in 2025-2026 as a sign of planning maturity. Some of the deliverables in scoping were resequenced or paused to maintain capacities among all partners.

We'd like to highlight some work to date that has already began impacting our city and our city outputs. You know, celebrating milestones and short wins and recognize them are always good to hear. And it shows the progress that we are all collectively doing.

We gained momentum on multiple MST-led housing projects, garnered learnings from mutually successful projects to improve future agreements with the local nations. We worked together to revise the staff training we need as City of Reconciliation. focused on practical, locally relevant training with offerings appropriate to staff in various role types. We began imagining how the city's Indigenous procurement policy can create new opportunities and shared prosperity. We continue to work together to protect the unique cultural heritage of the city, find ways to respectfully share with all residents and preserve it for future generations. We also collaborated on communication and storytelling to bring residents and visitors to Vancouver along with us on our work and our journey. I'll pass it on. Thank you. So moving forward.

Hello .. I just want to introduce, there's a couple of my advisory members that have come with me here. So we have Bernie Squamish, who actually runs Moccasin Mafia, and will be doing outreach during FIFA. We also have Anita McPhee. She has a law degree. She facilitates all of our urban indigenous engagement. She teaches lateral kindness. Real deadly warriors here. We have Marlene Jack from Chesilata Nation. She has been searching for her family since the 90s and has advanced the investigation this year with news hopefully coming out of some good news. Really big advocate and support for all of our work. And Amanda Nahaney from Squamish Nation. And she's also Nishka. And she's the person who got me working at the city of Vancouver. When I first had lunch with her, I said, where should I work? I was offered all these. She said, we need you to work at the city. You can do a really good job here. So I just want to thank you. And they can stand up here with me. um yeah so thank you so much for having me here today i just want to talk about the response report that we put out in 2022 it highlights key actions so our update highlights key actions that were undertaken to serve as the foundation for municipal implementation of the calls for justice and the red woman rising recommendations

Next slide, please. Okay, great. So the response report includes seven main recommendations, and underneath there, there's 38 sub-recommendations that we're going to be highlighting here. So many of the sub-recommendations have been complete, but all of the section won't be marked as complete until all of the recommendations in that section are completed. So last year, we noted that we would report like a full comprehensive report of all the recommendations. And due to staff capacity changes in the last year, we weren't able to advance that. But what we're doing is we're scoping a citywide database so that we can quarterly input reconciliation, UNDRIP, well, they're already doing UNDRIP, but MMAWG2S. And the reason why is because something like Sao U Center about moral... It might be reported in reconciliation and then in MMAWG2S. It's just a way to streamline that so that you could see what recommendations are actually aligning with all three reports.

Okay, so 4.1, this recommendation advances the development of a coordinated cross-departmental approach to implementing the calls for justice and the Red Woman Rising recommendations. The intent is to prove safety, accountability, and outcomes for Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit by embedding these commitments consistently across city departments. This also supports greater alignment between existing city frameworks, plans, and reporting processes. Current implementation efforts include ongoing coordination, pilot initiatives, and integration of related frameworks across departments. And a couple key actions underway include the SOWIS Center, which we talked about briefly, but it's an Aboriginal Land Trust Society-owned mixed-use development. Actually, Lindsay and I saw it the other day. It was really amazing. Hopefully we can show you guys some pictures soon. It's a 4,000 square foot center, which will deliver trauma-informed Indigenous healing services for families and survivors. And the city prepaid a 10-year lease for that place. So the city will, for next steps for this year, we will work in collaboration with Aboriginal Land Trust to identify and select an operator to run the Sawu Center. And that actually application is open right now for people to apply to run that center. It will support the transition from service delivery and ensure the space is Indigenous-led and responsive to the needs of survivors and families. And the other place is the Balmoral. It's on Hastings. I don't remember the address exactly, but it's close to the Carnegie Center, just kind of across the street there. And so significant process, and I have a picture of that in the next slide, but it's a really amazing space we went there. I just want to hang out there and kind of have a coffee and maybe do some work. So what we'll do for 2026 is we'll recruit and hire an Indigenous coordinator to lead programming and activation of this space with the focus on culturally safe, survivor-centered and community-driven approaches. It's for Indigenous people, but anybody in the community can come. So the impact on safety, that it creates culturally safe, Indigenous-led, survivor-centered spaces that support healing, connection, and access to service for MMIWG2S survivors, families, and the broader community. They even have garden, like little garden plots, so people can come and do gardening there. It's really amazing. And so early outcomes are increased visibility of Indigenous-led, survivor-focused priorities within city work. Here's a nice picture of the space right there. And up on the top, those little posters, you can see what's happening throughout the week and within the spaces. So that's a covered area. And so lots of activities go on this space. As you can see on the top right, there's a stage there for people to do performances. And especially young people who are starting out in their musical career could use that as a space to perform and to practice. There's a lot of spaces for people to sit around and visit and then do lots of activities. Come visit sometime if you like. I'll meet you there. Okay, so this is a really exciting one. This is actually a response to protocol for missing, murdered Indigenous women and girls. That was what we asked for. And so what we did is we developed and piloted a missing person alert protocol across 12 city departments. We implemented the pilot seven times, enabling prompt coordinated dissemination, which was initiated by the VPD. So when the VPD has a missing person alert that's ready for the public, it will go to us, and we will disseminate it across city departments, and all kinds of staff have it that are on the front line, and even staff that are not on the front line that want to participate. Go back to my notes because I'm freestyling. Okay. So what we will do for the next steps for 2026 is finalize a privacy impact assessment. And the reason why it's really important that we do that is because we don't want staff to compromise the privacy of somebody. So, for example, an alert goes out, it gets posted to social media, it never gets taken down, and now that person's privacy could be compromised in the future, future opportunities. So we are working on the privacy impact assessment and we will be doing training for staff on how to respond to the alert and launch the alert protocol this year. So the impact on safety is that it enables timely coordinated dissemination of missing person alerts across city departments. The reason why it's called Missing Person Alert, that's like the draft name. We're going to come up with a really good name, but we will search for, Indigenous people will search for any missing person. You don't have to be an Indigenous woman, girl, even though that we are the most missing and murdered in Canada, but we will look for anybody. And this alert has been activated with all populations. We found two people within hours of the alert. So city staff found two people within hours of the alert being disseminated. So it's working. It expands the reach of that critical information through frontline staff networks supporting faster community awareness. And one example is like the people at the Parks Board. I just did a presentation to them. So the people who are in the parks doing like gardening and all that type of stuff, they see people and they might not know that somebody is missing and they might see something that they think maybe, oh, like maybe that person needs help but not really sure. If they get the missing person alert, then there's instructions one, two, three, this is how you respond. Okay, let's go to the next slide. I could talk about that all day. Financial issues, capacity, sustainability, and accountability. This is in progress. So we streamlined the use of the handshake protocol within the honorarium policy when working with Indigenous partners. And we've got really good feedback from Indigenous people that they appreciate the protocol being implemented. And guidelines and resources were developed to support city staff to work in culturally appropriate ways with Indigenous partners by providing guidance for opening ceremonies, welcoming protocols, and local healing practices. So we're reducing barriers by reinforcing equitable and transparent recognition practices. So what we're doing is we're creating, for 2026, a step-by-step training guide outlining best practices for applying the handshake protocol and honorary policy consistently across departments. What we're finding is that people are still not sure exactly how to do this protocol because it's an Indigenous way of knowing that we're now using in this system. So the impact on safety, that it supports trust-building through respectful and consistent application of Indigenous protocols. It reduces barriers to participation by reinforcing equitable and transparent honorary and recognition practices. This is an example of one that could be reported across UNDRIP, reconciliation, and MMIWG2S. It was also reported in equity. So the final slide here is the strategic priorities and way forward. So reconciliation, UNDRIP, and the calls for justice are all important resources that city staff can access to further their professional development. Implementation of the response report recommendations applicable to the city in a coordinated citywide response will ensure impacts are felt intergenerationally by indigenous community and especially indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people. So the way forward includes finalizing and launching the Missing Person Alert Protocol and giving it a name, delivering staff training sessions on the Alert Protocol in collaboration with the BPD Missing Person Unit, and then delivering staff training sessions on the Urban Indigenous Engagement Framework, continuing to strengthen alignment between Reconciliation UNDRIP and MMIWG2S, and support staff with consistent application of MMIWG2S-related tools, protocols, and evaluation approaches. Miigwech, haichika. And I'll just give my advisory a chance to say something if you would like to share. Thank you so much. . To you all, respected people, my ancestral name is . I come from the Squamish and Nisga'a Nation. It feels extremely good in my heart to be here today, extremely honored to be a part of this team and to work on this . I get a little emotional. Murdered and Missing Indigenous Peoples Advisory. Thank you for allowing us to have our table, share our voice, share our concerns, but also share our expertise in this field that we are the experts that know how to find our people. We know how to work all these different systems and work through all these different barriers that are in our way. So We do this on behalf of our families, of our children, our grandchildren. And it's important to us that our communities are safe, but we want people who live in our communities and our territories to feel safe.

My English name is Anita McPhee and I'm Teltan. I'm from a remote community up in Telegraph Creek. I wanted to share how effective this process has been and how effective it's been being part of the MMIWG advisory group to the city of Vancouver, especially for someone like myself. who comes from a really remote community. If you had to drive there, it would take three days to get to Northern British Columbia. I had a nephew go missing once, and, you know, thanks to people like Skundal and our advisory team, you know, my nephew was found within two hours. I want to remind you that, you know, we're really grateful that the city supports us in looking for our people because we're highly vulnerable in the city of Vancouver. um our people come down from up north sometimes and they go missing sometimes for whatever circumstances that happens but it also when families go miss when have families have people who go missing they don't have the resources to find them sometimes they don't know where to go they don't know where to start and i'm so grateful that we have people like moccasin mafia and And I'm grateful that the city of Vancouver has invested in helping find our people and also the missing persons protocol, you know. So I'm really grateful. I just want to let you know that, you know, it works. And, you know, when it comes to looking for our people, thank you for that investment. Madhu.

I just want to say how to, my traditional name is Golgi Jad, which means Golden Spruce Roman. I come from a small village in Oaxaca. I also want to echo what our sisters have said. My hands go up to the city. I want to say since Moccasin Mafia has been around since COVID. I get very emotional because if it wasn't for the city trusting our team, we have rescued in over almost close to five years, 33 men and women from the downtown Eastside area down there. And we're going to be taking on like a... little bit different endeavor um june 11th with moccasin mafia slash vigil antis um we'll be out on the front lines again and without your support in supporting us and Just being there, it's been a real journey. And again, my hands go up to all of you for trusting the process with us and walking with us. And I want to acknowledge. our elder here and our brother here too for the kind words and but i want to say again because this is so important and to rachel um and michelle and also to pete you know who's been there with us many times on the front lines you know sometimes you feel like you're just bashing your head against the wall in that but um again i just want to say how to you again

Thank you so much for having us here.