100 Mile House Mayor Mitch Campsall said he was "proud" the District won a 2013 Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) Community Excellence Award in the Partnerships category.
This comment was made at the Sept. 24 council meeting as part of some highlights he presented on the annual UBCM Convention held the previous week in Vancouver.
"The municipality was one of the groups that won this award, with Wells, Quesnel, Williams Lake, the CRD [Cariboo Regional District] and [Esket'emc] First Nations."
These groups won the award for their combined efforts in the Remembering, Recovering, and Reconciling – St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School Commemorative Project last spring.
The mayor noted Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo was the high-calibre guest speaker at the award presentation.
"It was all about the work that we've done on reconciliation, all working together. That's the first time we've had all the [region's] municipal governments, and First Nations, working together as one."
After the convention, Atleo said it was the first of its kind promoting the concept that true reconciliation can only take place through understanding and communication.
UBCM also declared 2013 as its year of Reconciliation with First Nations across British Columbia.
At the District meeting, Campsall asked council to approve a $200 contribution toward a related public Orange Shirt Day event at 100 Mile House Elementary School at 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 30, recognizing that Every Child Matters. The request was approved.
Then, in his regular Mayor's Report, Campsall noted he did not win the small community representative position against District of Stewart Mayor Galina Durant, "a hard worker" who was re-elected for her fourth term.
"She did a good job, she went out there and got the votes, and congratulations to her.
"But, we still have three people representing the Cariboo on UBCM, which is really good. We have [CRD chair] Al Richmond, who is second vice-chair; we have [Quesnel Mayor] Mary Sjostrom, who is past president; and we have [Fraser-Ft. George Regional District chair] Art Kaehn, who is the regional district representative on here as well, who is just north of Quesnel [in Hixon].
"I would say [it] was a really upbeat UBCM ... quite often we end up going down there and it is a really negative feeling. It was just more upbeat, just a better feeling than the last ones I've been to, I thought.
Although, I didn't see much of it, I ran my backside off."
Campsall explained that is partly because he attended many meetings held for Rural BC and the North Central Local Government Association.
"It was absolutely pandemonium. I thought it was busy at the other UBCMs; this one was just mind-curdling. But it was good; it was all good."