Prince George

Voices from Central BC.

With more than sixty participants, the meeting in Prince George was one of the largest to date. Those present spoke about wanting to see support from the New Relationship Trust go toward everything from language and culture to land management and planning; post secondary education to training for further professional development.

One theme that was prominent throughout the Prince George meeting was that the need to focus on remote Northern communities. Northern communities expressed their desire to see First Nations people with lower levels of education and the communities with less capacity be given priority for access to capacity-building funds.

Some of the organizations represented were as follows: Williams Lake Band, Carrier Sekani Tribal Council, Lheidli T’enneh Nation, Nazko First Nation, Oweekeno, Nak’azdli Band, Carrier Chilcotin Treaty Council, Nadleh Whut’en, Yekooche First Nation and Tsay Keh Dene Band. As well, there were a number of Aboriginal organizations such as the Aboriginal Business Development Center, Prince George Nechako Aboriginal Employment Training Center, First Nations MPB Initiative, Prince George Friendship Center and University of Northern BC First Nations Center.

Given the large number in attendance, facilitator Nathan Matthew broke attendees up into smaller groups to discuss on four main topics related to the Trust: priorities, the process of application and access to funds, dispersal of the fund, and how to measure the success of funded projects. We then had groups present their most common feedback at the end of the meeting.

Some of the priorities highlighted by the focus groups were as follows:

• Funding should be needs-driven and the communities themselves should determine the needs.
• In addition to the priorities listed above, programs that the money should go to are youth, elders, on reserve healing and cross-generational healing from residential school.
• Use of funds to go towards revenue sharing, co-management and co-sharing projects.
• Capacity building should include everything from secondary school upgrading to post secondary and professional training.

Many attendees believed that the funding should be geographically based as opposed to population based. Others agreed that money should be available to those that want community or land planning. There was a strong indication that there should be complete transparency so all can see who has accessed the funding. There should be some money for grant writing training, to assist groups to access the fund, and there should be reporting on the ground results of funding projects. Attendees also expressed that both language and culture should be considered and that Non First Nations should be only able to access the funds with consent.

Participants at the meeting had differing ideas of how the money should be dispersed, but all agreed that the money should be accessible for multi-year projects and that investment professionals should be consulted in order to make the most out of the Trust.  Attendees were nearly unanimous in their desire to see full transparency of the New Relationship Trust. In regards to tracking success, everyone agreed it could take many take years but if there are any ways to piggy back on existing studies of First Nation Communities’ quality of life, these should be incorporated on measuring success of the funded projects.

A few participants were concerned that the Trust money may take responsibility away from Federal Government programs and that it should be made clear that the Trust is not replacing existing INAC programs. As well, some were concerned that the money may go to paying off First Nation communities’ debts and that the New Relationship Trust should keep as low administration costs as possible.

Overall the meeting was well attended from a variety of First Nations elected and hereditary leaders, First Nation and non First Nation citizens, and various Aboriginal Organizations. Emphasis was put on making sure that remote northern communities have access to the fund and that those with low capacity be prioritized for funding.