News Room
August, 2007
Protocol and Contribution Agreement signed with New Relationship Trust
The National Centre for First Nations Governance has signed a protocol and contribution agreement worth $250,000 with The New Relationship Trust (British Columbia) to work cooperatively in carrying out three key objectives: supporting the building of public service capacity within First Nations, supporting youth leadership initiatives and conducting assessments of the governance capacity of six to ten First Nation communities across British Columbia.
“This is a very significant protocol agreement for the Centre. It gives us the opportunity to work with our First Nation communities in British Columbia at a more personal level to help ensure they achieve their goals toward self determination; as is our Mission of the Centre,” says NCFNG Regional Manager for BC, Sheldon Tetreault.
He adds that with so many communities wanting to put into practice their inherent right to self governance, capacity needs to be a top priority; as well as having the qualified people in place to help organize, plan and administer governance. One of the first steps toward accomplishing self governance is to take a closer look at what currently exists. That’s where the Governance Capacity Assessment (GCA) comes in.
Through collaboration between Centre staff and academic institutions and advisors, the GCA has been in development for the past year. Now complete, it is being piloted in four First Nation communities; two in the British Columbia region and two in the Atlantic.
The Assessment, to be conducted by the NCFNG, will evaluate a First Nation’s current governance capacity with the objective of identifying strategic steps that can further advance the Nations’ vision of its future.
The result will be six to ten specific governance action plans as well as one aggregated report that will present the overall findings and provide recommended target areas for future governance capacity funding initiatives; all of which the NCFNG will provide direction on. And, in consultation with community members, the Centre intends to make the results widely available to other First Nations.
First Nation communities will have the option of further engaging the NCFNG to assist in the comprehensive strategic planning stages to realize the recommendations and visions.
Assessments are expected to be completed by March 2008.
