Thank you. Gilakas'la.
[Witness spoke in Kwakwala]
[English]
I'm Jessie Hemphill. I'm from the Gwa'sala-'Nakwaxda'xw Nations, located on the north bend of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. I'm coming to you today from Nanaimo, B.C., in Snuneymuxw territory, and I'm really happy to have been invited. I also want to acknowledge MP Blaney, whom I see at the side of the room there.
And yes, it is very early here.
I want to keep my comments brief this morning and make a couple of key points. I believe I've been invited to speak to the role of planning, particularly indigenous planning, in capacity-building and talent retention. The first key point I would make is that planning, in particular a style of planning called comprehensive community planning, which I'll describe in a moment, is key to capacity-building beyond economic development. We often think of economic development as the key initiative when it comes to capacity-building, but I'd argue that planning has its role as well, because if it's done properly, it builds capacity at all levels within indigenous communities—in leadership, administration and within the community itself.
I'll share a tiny bit of my background on this topic with you. I have been working in indigenous planning for more than a decade, beginning with my own community, Gwa'sala-'Nakwaxda'xw Nations. I have since gone on to lead planning workshops and have worked with hundreds of communities across Canada. I've probably worked directly as a mentor planner with a couple of dozen first nations in Canada, from coast to coast to coast, on their community planning initiatives, and I've been the facilitator for indigenous planning workshops in many of the provinces and in both of the national comprehensive community planning workshops, one held in Charlottetown and one held in Winnipeg in previous years.
I am a trained planner, and last year I was also recognized at the Canadian Institute of Planners with the young planners award for Canada.
There hasn't been a large-scale study to date on the role of planning in capacity-building, so I'm speaking anecdotally and from personal experience, but I'd just like to convey that it's a pretty extensive personal experience in a field where there are not a lot of people working nationally.
In terms of comprehensive community planning, as I said, this is one of the keys to building up capacity and the structural integrity to do economic development and job training, education, health and all of these things. Comprehensive community planning is a form of planning that was named and developed by indigenous communities in British Columbia in the mid-2000s. It is a form of planning that is long-range. Typically, these plans are for 50 to 100 years, maybe 25 years on the short-term end, and they encompass everything.
You could almost compare it to official community planning for local government, but the scope is even broader than that. Typically, in CCPs we see economic development, lands and resources management, governance, health, culture, social issues, education, infrastructure, housing—all of these things are included in this type of planning.
Another key feature of CCPs is that they are developed by the community according to a process that the community itself determines. The previous speaker, Mr. Marshall Jr., I believe, spoke to challenges around the lack of continuity between the elected leadership. This form of planning, because it's long-range and is created by the community itself, has really done wonders in communities to address this challenge and help ensure some continuity of vision and action.
These plans do not necessarily resemble one another. Another one of the previous speakers, whose name I missed, was asking about best practices and the efficacy of nations building on each other's successes. The response was that our nations have such different needs and contexts that we need flexible solutions. In my opinion, planning, particularly when the community is allowed to define the parameters of the planning process and outcome on its own terms, enables that kind of flexibility.
I would also agree with the previous speaker that balancing that out with mentorship—networks or communities of practice at provincial and national levels—really helps to bring ideas together from various communities and to create those support networks, and it also allows each community to pursue the planning process in its own unique way.
That's just a tiny bit of background. Just for your information, there is a website called comprehensivecommunityplanning.org, if any members of the committee would like to read more about that style of planning.
I think that is the key point.
I wanted to leave most of the time for questions today. I'm happy to take any questions now, through the chair.