By Teviah Moro
The city is hiring a senior project manager to roll out an urban aboriginal strategy meant to dovetail with calls for action flowing from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Local stakeholders are calling the move a positive step toward bridging gaps between municipal services and the more than 15,000 aboriginals in Hamilton, where they say discrimination is ever present.
“It’s going to take a long time to reverse that kind of thinking,” Cindy Sue Montana McCormack, a social planner at the Social Planning and Research Council of Hamilton (SPRC), said Wednesday.
But Montana McCormack believes the city is a leader among municipalities when it comes to addressing urban aboriginal concerns, especially housing.
For instance, 20 per cent of funding for homelessness is dedicated to the aboriginal community, which, importantly, also decides how that money is spent, she noted.
Ideally, whoever is hired would “move that policy decision into the next realm,” Montana McCormack said. “How can they do this in other departments?”
Article and image source: The Hamilton Spectator
