That's a good question. I've wondered about this for a while.
I'm in a unique place. We're in a unique place in British Columbia. I was just watching the news last night. The City of Vancouver has actually put an action plan together for UNDRIP. They supported and passed a law on it a long time ago. The provincial government has done a similar thing.
I've talked to my indigenous friends across the country, and they were saying, “You guys did that? Your governments are doing that?”, and I'm saying, “Of course. That's what we've done.” Then I was thinking, “Is there something there?” Then it just makes good sense that we create an open climate under reconciliation.
What is reconciliation? To me, it's looking at something from a different perspective and saying that I should keep my mind open that the way you're viewing this might be different from the way I'm viewing it. Let me try to understand what you're saying so that we can work together to come up with an outcome that's good for both of us. To me, that's the gist of what reconciliation is.
In that vein, I think there are areas where we could still continue to learn from each other so that we can say, “Okay, I get it now. That's what you're saying. Let's work on that.” I just feel we've been lucky over there. We're not struggling with that. We're not struggling with governments as much in agreeing to do business.
In my trading area, I have 50-plus first nations. In the Coast Salish territory, there are 50. Many of them are doing quite well, frankly. They just go to the table saying that this is their situation, so let's get together and work.
I don't think we have as much resistance on our side. I think we have a lot of entrepreneurship there to do some good stuff. It's just made for a good climate. It doesn't hurt that the property values are going through the roof over there, by the way. That's made some good business opportunities for us as well.
I think we've almost had a perfect storm, but I'd like to think we could model some of those things in other areas. I think it starts by just being open to trying to understand what the other side is saying and working with that in a good respectful way.
Thank you.