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Reading “Trade Offs” (January/February), Don Gillmor’s investigation into the downfall of the Hudson’s Bay Company, I was disappointed by the lack of Indigenous perspectives. Like Gillmor, I have fond memories of the Bay. As a young boy growing up in Long Plain First Nation, I rode the bus to Winnipeg with my grandmother on special occasions to shop at the Bay. That iconic building was gifted to us last year by HBC, as part of the single largest act of corporate reconciliation in Canada. Canada’s founding history is marked by stolen lands, with First Nations locked out of the economic prosperity that flowed from our territories. In Manitoba, more than a million acres of land was to be transferred to First Nations through Treaty Land Entitlement. This quota has not been met, and Crown lands continue to be auctioned off today without First Nations input. That is why the HBC gift is so profound: it is a tangible shift in our relationship with each other. In the next few months, the transformation of the Bay building will begin. We are building hundreds of affordable housing units for families, post-secondary students, and First Nations elders, with a licensed daycare on site where children can learn to speak our languages. The next generation of First Nations youth is watching us. They need to see themselves reflected in our urban life, with safe, healthy, thriving spaces in every downtown across Canada.
