A meeting between members of Quesnel City Council and the Lhtako Dene Nation cost taxpayers more than four thousand dollars.
$4,214.96 was the total bill for food, a consultant to plan and facilitate the event, and honorariums for elders that came and told their stories about residential schools.
The money to pay for it came out of the city’s First Nations budget.
The meeting was held back on November 5th at the Marsh House.
It was viewed as the first step towards repairing a strained relationship between the two parties.
Mayor Ron Paull, who was in attendance at the meeting, is accused of trying to distribute a controversial book on residential schools at a CRD meeting earlier in the year.
Mayor Paull denies the allegation.
He has been sanctioned by City council members which includes being removed as the city’s CRD and Northern Development Initiative Trust representative, being removed from city committees and Indigenous Relations, and having his travel budget and lobbying budget removed.
The Mayor filed a petition in Supreme Court in Vancouver to have them lifted and the case was heard, but there still hasn’t been a decision.
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