The City of Castlegar won’t raise a flag to mark Christian Heritage Month until it has a new flag policy in place, but it might light up the highway overpass instead.
Council discussed a request this week from a local resident to fly the flag, as part of a national initiative.
Councillor Shirley Falstead said she was opposed to the idea because she has friends and family who suffered from the residential school system, which was administered by Christian churches.
Other councillors were more ambivalent. Councillor Sue Heaton-Sherstobitoff said it’s the first time she can remember a faith-based organization asking the city to raise a flag, and she expects that saying yes would open the door for others.
She suggested the city needs to come up with a policy first, although she wasn’t opposed to lighting the overpass. City staff said a flag policy is already in the works, along with a policy on hanging banners.
Councillor Brian Bogle said he feels the only flags that should fly at city hall are the Canadian, provincial, and municipal ones. “It avoids a slippery slope of picking and choosing,” he said.
Councillor Darcy Bell agreed that without an official policy, it’s difficult for council to say yes to one group and no to another.
Mayor Maria McFaddin said restricting the flags to the three Bogle mentioned would be a change, because currently the city flies the Pride flag in September.
She said she’s reluctant to open the door to more flags
McFaddin said the Pride flag represents support “around what people feel is their identity,” and the Christian Heritage request is similar.
“It’s actually just as deeply rooted in someone’s identity. And so now all of a sudden we’re deciding which things that people identify as connected to on a very deep level are valuable and which ones aren’t.”
However, Falstead argued the request at hand isn’t the same because it deals with religion.
Corporate services director Bree Seabrook said creating a flag policy will start with posing a series of questions to council, because it is “a sensitive topic and requires a lot of conversation.” She said council’s answers will help inform the policy and whether it will be presented to the current council or a future one.
Councillor Cherryl MacLeod said council members should look at flag policies in other communities instead of making staff do all the work.
“Let’s give them some suggestions,” she said. “Find the things that we like and don’t like, and then when we have that conversation, we’re educated and can give them some better direction.”
Council agreed to suggest lighting up the bridge instead.
Trail declined to declare last December as Christian Heritage Month by a vote of 4-2.
