WESTLOCK – For the first time in its history, the Town of Westlock has issued an Indigenous land acknowledgement to open a meeting.
At council’s Sept. 27 meeting, the final one before the Oct. 18 municipal election, mayor Ralph Leriger read the acknowledgement, which will become a fixture at the start of all future council, committee of the whole and tri-council meetings. The acknowledgement dovetails with the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation held Thursday, Sept. 30.
“The Town of Westlock acknowledges the traditional land on which we are headquartered is in Treaty 6 territory. We honour and respect the diverse status and non-status Indigenous people who call this territory home such as the Métis, the Cree and Woodland Cree peoples,” said Leriger, who along with the majority of council and admin were donning orange shirts at the meeting.
Town CAO Simone Wiley said council and admin have talked about doing a land acknowledgement for some time, but just never got around to it — the issue of an acknowledgement last surfaced during Canada Day celebrations in Westlock.
Currently, Westlock County and the Village of Clyde do not recite a land acknowledgement before meetings, while the Pembina Hills School Division began the practice in 2017 for meetings, significant special events and professional development days — teachers also have the option of reading the acknowledgement on the first day of school.
“I had been trying to find something more specific for our area to provide to council. The mayor and I had a conversation that the timing was good as this was this council’s last meeting before Sept. 30,” said Wiley.
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a statutory holiday for employees in the federal government and federally-regulated workplaces — while RCMP officers were on duty Thursday in Westlock, administration staff weren’t. Meanwhile the town, Westlock County, St. Mary School and banks were closed for the day, but Pembina Hills schools in town were open, as were the vast majority of other businesses.
Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario have chosen not to recognize Sept. 30 as a stat — the Alberta government encouraged reflection and lowered flags on government buildings, but left the implementation of a statutory holiday up to individual employers.
Wiley said the town’s HR policy spelled out their decision to close.
“It states what statutory holidays the town observes. And in it there’s a section that very specifically says, ‘ … as well as all federal and provincial and others recognized by the Town of Westlock.’ So I was bound by policy to recognize the federal stat,” she explained.
“Now it could have come back to council, but at this time we decided to stick with the policy and observe the day.”
