New horizons in land development
Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh partnership a roadmap for urban prosperity.
Sheryl Rivers shares insights alongside other panellists at the 2022 Indigenous Partnerships Success Showcase.
David Negrin says his first task as CEO with the MST Development Corporation was to work with the Musqueam Indian Band, Squamish Nation, and Tsleil-Waututh Nation to get their land back.
“I’m proud to say right now that we have over 20 million square feet of land in the heart of Vancouver, and we’re currently negotiating another eight million square feet,” he tells the audience during the panel discussion, New Horizons: BC First Nations Advancing Equity Participation in Land Development. MST negotiated the purchase of the lands at a price significantly below-market value.
“The value of land today with the holdings that we have is $5 billion. With another eight million square feet it’ll be another two and a half billion dollars.”
A highly lauded rezoning application by MST Development to redevelop 21 acres of that land received unanimous approval from Vancouver’s city council in May 2022.
“A large portion of our development will be affordable, attainable, and work-force housing,” says Negrin. “This is a totally different type of development. It’s a cultural First Nations Indigenous development. And that’s what’s built into it. And I’ve got to tell you again I’ve never seen anything like it.
“I’ve learned more from the First Nations than I’ve been able to teach them. And what I learned about development, it’s about culture, it’s about family, and it’s about success. And success for First Nations. And that was a huge change in my thinking of how we do development. The Nations bring a culture, and they bring values, and they bring an understanding of what they believe is a proper type of development.”
Before work on the proposal even began, “the number one thing that we did . . . we created a cultural interpretive strategy, which has never been submitted in a rezoning application at all,” says Tsleil-Waututh Nation Councillor Dennis Thomas.
“Our first project, we wanted to do the four elements of life: wind, land, water, fire. And they all really touch us in so many different ways that actually relate to our Indigenous laws. So we started with that.”
The development’s concept emerged from consulting with members in the three Nations, and then sharing their history, culture, and values with the project’s designers, architects, and engineers.
“It’s a game-changer in the development industry,” says Thomas. “And it really comes with like-minded people and partners that really want to understand our value system, our connection to the land, connection to the water, connection to building our economy.”
Graphic illustration by Drawing Change reflects session themes.
All of this was possible because of the partnerships forged—firstly, among the three Nations.
Prior to the three Nations signing a protocol agreement focused on land acquisitions in 2014, Chief Ian Campbell of the Squamish Nation says that the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh had all been doing their own developments on and off reserve, but “we had been in a tug-of-war with scarcity of resources. We were in competition over acquisition of lands, and dispositions of lands that are claimed by the Crown. Within our territories [this] presented a formidable challenge for the three families.
“This was certainly monumental in reframing from competition to a place of collaboration. And what I’m excited about . . . to see the families really come together and reaffirm our kinship ties . . . to gather in our longhouses to do ceremony with each other, and then to look to a brighter future, where we can develop wealth creation, wealth management.”
Johnna Sparrow-Crawford of the Musqueam Indian Band, who is Aboriginal relations advisor with Aquilini Development, says: “We always have to come back to community and remember that we’ve been partners and families since time immemorial. And now we have to open up and realize that in order for us to be successful, we have to have partners. We’ve had a long road of unsuccess in the past, being marginalized in our, what we call, reservations. I want that narrative to change. It’s not a reserve. It’s a village. A reserve is what was inflicted on us.”
“You know, we’re done with Indigenous-inspired,” says Thomas. “It’s Indigenous-led.
“I always like to reflect on how our economies were before contact. We had sophisticated complex robust economies, pre-contact. . . . We had different resources that we respected. Our Indigenous laws were in place. All of that got derailed through colonization. And 170 years later, we’ve come full circle now. . . . Although we do have to acquire the lands, we are now one of the most powerful three Nations in the world. And that’s just the very beginning.”
“The most powerful developer in North America right now is MST—the three Nations coming together,” says Negrin. “If the three Nations weren’t together, they would not have the land they have. And that’s the true partnership. The true partnership is MST, which drives the partnerships with developers, with the province, with the feds, and with the cities.
“The message I have today is, never underestimate the power of a Nation or the power of the MST Nations. . . . And I guarantee that any developer in this town, any developer in Canada, will cherish a relationship with the First Nations.”
This article was originally published in Rights & Respect, Issue 2. To purchase a physical copy of the magazine, click here. To purchase tickets to the Indigenous Partnerships Success Showcase, coming June 1-2, 2023, click here.
