The provincial government is making a number of changes as part of work toward Truth and Reconciliation.

A proposal to rename Red Indian Lake to Beothuk Lake received second reading in the House of Assembly yesterday but Minister of Indigenous Affairs and Reconciliation Lisa Dempster says it doesn’t end there.

She says among the things they’re working towards is a new statue outside Confederation Building.

Government is proceeding with plans to procure and erect a Beothuck statue that will be placed near the front entrance with space to allow people to reflect.

New murals are also being created for the front lobby of Confederation Building, and Dempster says work is underway to develop new curriculum in the province’s schools.

The updated curriculum will include new teachings on the culture and history of Indigenous peoples in Newfoundland and Labrador.

MHAs debated a new proposal to change the name of Red Indian Lake in Central Newfoundland to Beothuk Lake took place in the House of Assembly yesterday.

The lake, long associated with the Beothuk people, is in Chris Tibbs’ district of Grand Falls-Windsor – Buchans. The PC MHA says the consultation process surrounding the potential name change was “deeply flawed” and caused conflict, confusion and controversy that he says could have easily been avoided.

The consultation process was launched as the result of a public outcry following a sudden announcement indicating that the name of the lake was being changed. Even once consultations were arranged, residents were told no decisions had been made. That, he says, caused further confusion and controversy.

He says if government was honest and residents were informed that there were plans to change the name of the lake as part of Truth and Reconciliation, then it would have changed the direction of the discourse.

In the meantime, Tibbs says efforts he has made on behalf of area residents to save an eroding point of land on the lake where Mamateek replicas are kept and where Beothuk artifacts have been found, have gone nowhere.

He says he sent a request for a special assistance grant to get some ditching done to save the point of land and the artifacts there, but the request was denied.