Regional Chief Teegee Blasts Vancouver Mayor Sim Following Leak of DTES Plan

March 10, 2025

(Lheidli T’enneh Territory, Prince George, BC – March 10, 2025) – Regional Chief Terry Teegee and the BCAFN are calling upon Mayor Ken Sim and the City of Vancouver to abandon and apologize for an ill-informed and ill-advised plan to destabilize and rehouse Indigenous residents from their homes and communities in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) neighbourhood of Vancouver.

The Globe and Mail received a leaked confidential memo distributed to councillors within the Mayor’s ABC party. The memo proposed a roadmap for the DTES neighbourhood, which problematically included a “Re-unification roundtable with First Nations, Métis and other Indigenous groups” to remove Indigenous residents from the DTES and relocate them to their “home” communities.

The Globe and Mail further reported that despite changes to the document following its leak, Vancouver City Counselor Rebecca Bligh, previously a member of the Mayor’s ABC Party, believes the Mayor intends to follow through with this plan. This represents a concerning level of ignorance by the City of Vancouver Mayor and governing party regarding the historical and contemporary context of First Nations peoples living in the City of Vancouver and throughout the province.

“This leaked gentrification plan represents a serious threat to the urban-Indigenous community in the city. The City of Vancouver is home and will always be home to First Nations peoples”, stated Regional Chief Terry Teegee. “First Nations residents are not an impediment to community safety and deserve to be acknowledged as rightful citizens of this city.” The Regional Chief continued, “Mayor Sim, the ABC Party and the City of Vancouver have an obligation to support First Nations residents and ensure their safety and enjoyment of this city is equitable to each and every other resident.”

“It’s difficult to interpret Mayor Sims’ DTES plan, including plans to relocate First Nations residents, when viewed in conjunction with his plans to cancel new social housing developments and review social programming in the community, as anything other than a plan to target and evict vulnerable community residents in favour of developer projects and profits,” Regional Chief Teegee concluded.

First Nations peoples leave their communities and seek residence in Canada’s cities for a wide variety of reasons, including seeking employment, training, housing, services, and programs that aren’t available in their home communities. Many others simply do not have communities to

return to due to the imposition of the Indian Residential School System, the 60s scoop and the underfunding of rural services and programs. Furthermore, the Auditor General of Canada has released many reports over the years showing that longstanding issues of overcrowding, mould and poor housing conditions have gone unaddressed in First Nations communities for decades.

The leaked plan’s objectives directly conflict with Vancouver’s commitments to be a City of Reconciliation and flies in the face of the city’s commitments to the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which through Article 8, 18, and 23, articulates First Nations peoples’ rights to being protected from relocation, population transfer and the right to determine our own priorities and strategies for developing and determining health, housing and other economic and social programmes affecting us.

Over 30% of the residents of the DTES are Indigenous. First Nations peoples, inclusive of Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and the Indigenous DTES community, must be at the table when discussing the solutions and impacts of the housing crisis, the drug poisoning crisis and the need for broad and culturally relevant mental health supports within the DTES neighbourhood.

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For further information, contact:

Annette Schroeter

BC Assembly of First Nations
(778) 281-1655

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