GovernanceYesterday, Today and Tomorrow
Chief Patrick MichellKanaka Bar Indian Band
ThursdayMay 4, 2017 at 12:30 pmThe Law Courts Inn (Vancouver)800 Smithe Street – 4th Floor
Kanaka’s Website:
http://www.kanakabarband.ca
What is Governance?Common Themes
Somebody at the Top• Monarchs, Presidents, Prime
Ministers, and Premiers• What about Warlords, Dictators and
people like Hitler?
• House of Lords, Commons and Senate
• CEO’s and Managers?• Academic Institutions &
Municipalities• Teachers and Parents
Rules and practices that regulate life• “Might makes Right” and the “Golden Rule”
• The 10 Commandments
• Bible (2000 Years) and Quran (1400)• Examples of all the universal holy books
• Magnacarta (Britain 1215)
• American Bill of Rights (USA 1776)
• British Colonies (BC 1858)
• Canadian Constitution (1867 & 1982)
• Legislated statutes and regulations and policy
• Corporate Bylaws
Is governance a static or a living thing?
Governance ChallengeFirst Nation Diversity
• 633+ Bands in Canada
• 203+ Bands in BC
• 27 “Nations” in BC
Each with similar but also different stories of governance.
Where is the writing?
Therefore:
• No “one size fits all”
• Matrilineal or Patrilineal
• Hereditary or “elections”
• Community based model or centralized Nation body
Nlaka'pamux Governance Yesterday
7000 Years of Governance: handed down orally through daily interaction…
June 20,1808
Simon Fraser arrives at Lytton and says:
“They have a great many Chiefs”
What is a Chief?
What is a Kokpi?
…then came change!
KOKPI SYSTEM: leadership though knowledge, skill set, charisma or oration.
Nlaka'pamux (The People Here)Couteau Tribe or The Thompson Indians?
Nlaka'pamux Nation Lands T'eqt''aqtn' Traditional Territory
The crossing place
Nlaka’pamuxContact and Colonization
Time Immemorial then….change!
1808: first contact with Simon Fraser • Nlaka'pamux Name change)
1846: Colony of Vancouver Island
1857: Fraser Canyon War starts • Nlaka'pamux Unification occurs
1858: Colony of British Columbia • Kanaka Name Change
1867: Canada’s Confederation (British North America Act)
1871: BC joins Canada (Article 13 “Terms of the Union”)
1876: First Consolidated Indian Act• Created Bands and Chief and Council
1967: Canada’s 100th birthday • Lament for Confederation
Where are we now?1972: Calder decision
1982: Constitution Act of Canada• Section 35
1992: Sparrow decision• Natural Resources Agreement
1997: Delgamuukw
2003: Nlaka’pamux Writ in BCSC• Seeking declaration of Title
2014: Tsilhqot'in decision
2016: UNDRIP
2017: Canada’s 150 Birthday
http://www.kanakabarband.ca/downloads/memory-loss-and-sorrow-2010.pdf
Nlaka'pamux Governance Colonisation “froze us time”Years of
“Subjugation, Oppression and Denial “• Indian Act
• 69 Nlaka’pamux communities now 15 Bands• Indian Act defines “Chief and Councils”• Jurisdiction defined and limited to reserve
boundaries
• Reserve lands• Kanaka has 6 Reserves (700 acres) from which
250 were appropriated for public rights of way.
• Residential Schools• Closed in 1976 (no language, disconnection from
land, family and traditional knowledge transfer)
• Court case after Court case• Indigenous Title and Rights (still denied?)
• We never evolved into a Nation state.
Equates to a 1970’s Status Quo
• Anger
• Despair
• Frustration
• Dependency
• Suicide, addictions and all those other social ills!
How are we supposed to act as a Government today then?
Kanaka GovernanceLike the old ways – at the community level
Change the Status Quo
• Looked at what was happening around us (awareness)
• Began making small scale changes in the way we lived (housing, offices,
administration, relationships etc.)
• Chose one “major” project for advancement (learning opportunity)
• Began Codifying (writing down) laws, and policy and plans.
Create both a Vison and Goals
• Energy
• Food
• Employment
• Financial
And the foundational policy and infrastructure to make it last.
Community Vision Statement: return to a self-sufficient, sustainable and vibrant community.
1978 1990 2006 2009 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Birth of the idea for a renewable energy
project
Water licence for Kwoiek Creek
EPA acquired from BC Hydro
EAO Certificate
Kwoiek Creek Project achieved
C.O.D
Membership CodeElection Code
Governance Code
Hired a CEO
Regular Council & Community Meetings
ECDA
Adoption of FAL and
Certified by FMB
FCRSA
CEBF
Xyntax
Lot-16 Acquired
Health Department
LUP
Kwoiek’sRefinancing
New Council
Organization Chart
Bi-annual Planning Process
Website
Housing Program
CEDP
Lands Department
Separate Economic
Development Arm
Siwash Partnership
CWPP7th
Gen
New Fee-Simple
Properties
Food Self-sufficiency
Pilot Project
Hired a SFU Research Intern
Organization & Situational
Analysis
Another CEO
Solar Pilot
Project
HR Policy
New Sub-division Development
Territorial Lands
Strategy
Wellness Plan
Separating:
• Business and politics
• Social from Profit
• Decision making from implementation
http://www.kanakabarband.ca/about-us/our-organization
Kanaka’s Current organizational chart
Organizational chart (holistically)
At Kanaka Governance is…. Transparency, Accountability and Recall
• Website updated weekly
• All plans and strategies are online
• Bi-annual reports online• (last 6 months and next 6 months)
• Meeting with membership every 3rd Thursday –starting at 5:00
• A verbal 30 day look back & next 30 days• Last agenda item is recall
• Office open Monday to Friday with a toll free number
• Council and managers available for one on one
• AGM for band and all corporations.
• Membership have telephone and email access to community lawyers and accountants. These professionals also come to the office.Snip from our Summer Plan 2017 – all online
Information is Power and Kanaka gives it away for free!
Governance Today Challenges Everywhere for Everyone
Focus• distractions, curveballs and
spontaneity
Decisions• live with success and learn from
failure (on small scale)
Work/Life Balance• Family, children and self
Jobs and Economy• Wealth transfer
4 Deficiencies
• Technology
• Time
• Money
• People
What Kanaka is working on….overwhelming!
• Still working on the dependency mindset (learning/unlearning)
• Kinder Morgan Pipeline• Highland Valley Mine• CNR and CPR• BC Hydro• Highways• Revenue Sharing with Province• Addressing housing conditions• Reducing food and energy imports• Establishing own source revenues
• Decreasing Federal Transfer Dollars• Climate Change
• Wild Salmon disappearing• Forest Fires• Heat• Erosion and Sediment Controls• Water Quantity and Quantity• Ecosystems are changing
• Mapping the past and present land and resource uses
• Wind, Solar and hydro projects• Reintroducing Agriculture
What is Governance Then?
At Kanaka Governance is:
1. Leadership
2. Community
3. Balance
4. Decision Making
What is the Priority?
To Produce:
• Recovery
• Transparency and Accountability
• Stability and Fairness
• Predictable quality of life
All of which is sustainable for our future generations.
What we do to the land, we do to ourselves!
Governance of TomorrowWhat's Next for Kanaka Then?
Continue Self-sufficiency Goals and…
• Energy• Food• Employment• Financial
Plus creating the documents and processes that guide us today but remain flexible enough to adapt to the needs of tomorrow.
…Foundational infrastructure for the small scale economies of tomorrow!
What needs to be written next?
Governance for the Rest of the World“Leaders that Lead”
“Same old Same old” or ….
• That 1% thing• growing inequity creating more
marginalized people
• Import/Export market uncertainty
• Government Instability
• Ecosystem, species and population shifts
• Prices going up while everyone'srevenues go down
….I’m thinking first steps….Transition• End the go big or go home mentality
• Promote Small scale diversity• Reduce high and lows
• Promote return to regional based economies • good neighbors, sharing and cutting back
on the wants
• Reduce dependency on the global market (consider economic leakage and produce that what we need)
• Motivate and subsidize harm reduction and harm reversal programs and sustainable industries
OR (next slide please)
The Fall of 2017“Let them Eat Cake?”
The current “governance” messaging out there is scary.
Are our Leaders in denial?
When a government does not listen nor make the changes that were promised, what can we, as the population, do?
• Give Up
• Accept return of the “might makes right” and the “golden rule”
• Recall (the current ABC campaign)
• Protest
• Revolution
Governance and Climate Change
There is no planet B
Its real and what's happening will increase in:
• Frequency• intensity and • duration
creating both a global slow down and ultimately a systemic shut down of our economies due to the now overwhelming crises.
We are all in the same boat!
Climate Change Adaption
What we have done we can undo.
Governance is Entities Working Together
Federal Government
Provincial Government
Developers
First Nations
Areas of Commonality
• Governance
• Lawyers & Financial Institutions
• We all need each other
• We all need certainty
• We all have future generations
What are you advising your clients?
Thank You – Questions?
