Date…

Chief … … First Nation….. …..…..

Dear Chief …,

Re: Reserve Land and First Nations Development

Greetings.

My name is Paul Fauteux and I was until recently Director General of Lands at INAC Headquarters. After more than five years in that position, at the request of Sara Filbee, Assistant Deputy Minister for Lands and Economic Development, and with the support of Deputy Minister Michael Wernick, I agreed to take on a special project on Reserve Land and First Nations Development in which I hope you will agree to participate.

The Federal Framework for Aboriginal Economic Development released by the Government of Canada in June 2009 included enhancing the value of Aboriginal assets among its strategic priorities and a commitment to a modern lands management regime to help enhance the value of assets. For First Nations, this means modernizing the reserve lands management regime to help enhance the value of reserve lands as an asset.

To meet this commitment, the Department would like to better understand the experience of more successful First Nations such as your own in leveraging their reserve land for social and economic development purposes, and draw lessons from that experience that can be of benefit to other First Nations across Canada.

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Land can contribute to well-being both indirectly by strengthening a community’s sense of taking control of its own destiny (land as a governance/social resource) and directly through its use as an economic resource. The Reserve Land and First Nations Development Project will therefore examine with a group of more successful First Nations (based on education, employment, average per capita income and housing) the extent to which these two ways of using land are part of their experience, and identify the problems with which they were confronted, the solutions they developed, the factors that contributed to their success and those that did not, and any issues they may have left unaddressed in seeking to maximize the benefits flowing from their reserve land.

I have spoken about this project to a group of leaders of national First Nations institutions who have an interest in reserve land and to whom I am sending a copy of this letter, all of whom support the project and have agreed to help me ensure that it serves First Nation interests by:

- sharing stories among more successful First Nations;- drawing lessons from those stories; and- making recommendations based on those lessons

so that more First Nations can become successful in leveraging their reserve land for development purposes.

To this end, I will be carrying out structured interviews with a group of at least 25 more successful First Nations from all regions of southern Canada over the summer months. These First Nations did not become successful overnight and, since the land-related problems, solutions, factors and issues that are linked to their success emerged over time, they may not all be known by any one individual. That’s why I would like to visit the main reserve of each First Nation and have a series of conversations with Lands, Environment and Economic Development staff, Council members responsible for those files and the Chief. After each visit I will prepare an interview report and send it to Chief and Council for review and any additional recommendations. The interview reports will not be shared without Chief and Council’s consent.

The structured interviews should be completed by early September 2010 and the interview reports will be integrated to produce the final project report. The draft report will be submitted for comments to the previously mentioned group of leaders of national First Nations institutions and with participating First Nations, all of whom will receive a copy of the final report. This report will provide targeted fact-based advice and be an important input into the Department's efforts to modernize reserve land management, both under and beyond the Indian Act.

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Would you be willing to participate in this project and to receive me on your lands for this purpose? Carole Lamarre of my office will be following up by phone in the hope that we might agree on a mutually convenient date for me to come visit you this summer.

Respectfully,

Paul FauteuxSenior AdvisorLands and Economic Development

 

Cc: Harold Calla of the Squamish Nation, Chairperson of the First Nations Financial Management Board

Leona Irons of the Curve Lake First Nation, Executive Director of the National Aboriginal Land Managers Association

C.T. (Manny) Jules, Chief Commissioner of the First Nations Tax Commission and former Chief of the Kamloops Indian Band

Chief Clarence Louie of the Osoyoos Indian Band, Chairperson of the National Aboriginal Economic Development Board

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