Research Advisory Group Meeting
May 20th, 2015
Attending: Toddi Steelman, Graham Strickert, Tim Jardine, Jennifer Fresque-Baxter, Stuart
Macmillan, Evan Andrews, Sarah Baines, Kiri Staples
Regrets: Maureen Reed, Greg Poelzer
Action Items
Task
Responsible
Schematic of different projects in the
Tim
Saskatchewan River Delta
Meet with Graham, Karl and Toddi to discuss
Kiri
CCRN and DDN overlap (timing TBD)
Tentative agenda for Delta Day and letter of
Kiri
request for funding
Contact funders to scope out possibilities for
Jen (Tides Canada, Walter Duncan Gordon),
Delta Day
Tim (CWN), Graham (Government agencies,
Sask Eco Network), Kiri (Connections Grant,
Gwenna Moss)
Meeting Minutes
1. Project Updates
a. Saskatchewan River Delta

Kiri and Evan visited Cumberland House recently – the purpose was to
introduce Kiri to the community and for Evan to present his research. He
gave a presentation to high school students, as well as to the broader
community at a planning meeting. This meeting was a part of the work
that Bob Patrick and Graham Strickert are doing to facilitate establishing a
watershed planning group. These meetings will continue in the future, but
going forward will likely have a smaller group in order to facilitate
decision-making around creating a plan. Unlike the PAD and SLRD, the
SKRD doesn’t have an organized group, so this is an effort to do that.

Kiri and Evan also met with two people at the Charlebois Community
School. They would like to develop a “locally developed course” centered
on the delta, and we will be trying to support that process. We will also be
attending the 125 celebration in Cumberland House this summer.
b. Peace-Athabasca Delta

This project is still in the planning stages for field work (roughly
August/September). Sarah is still waiting for final approval from ethics.
She went through the Band Council resolution process as well.

Question: What kind of documentation did you submit for this?
o It started with a formal introduction letter from Toddi. Originally
we were going to have to submit a lengthy document detailing the
research process, compensation, etc. However, we had to write up
a summary of the project for our research agreement, so were
recommended not to duplicate this work, and to instead
adapt/shorten for resolution process.
o All of these documents are available on the shared drive and will
be accessible to others. Examples of best practices are always
useful – we should make sure people know this is a useful process.
c. Slave River Delta

Kiri and Jen have started talking about some of the methods that might be
appropriate for this project. They will be presenting at the Canadian
Association of Geographers meeting. Jen will be talking about some of the
“big picture” stuff, and Kiri will be discussing the DDN. She will focus
specifically on the Slave River Delta project and getting feedback on the
proposed knowledge mobilization framework.

The theme of the session they are in is northern peripheral communities in
relation to development. The idea is that as we increasingly move to
collaborative processes of government, the importance of engaging
environmental stewardship becomes even more critical. There is also an
important role for knowledge mobilization within that. Partnerships and
sharing information is important within and across deltas to engaging in
resource development. The session we are in includes a lot of international
representatives – this could be useful if we’re thinking about a partnership
grant involving international deltas in the future.
2. Formalization of research agreements

We have a formalized agreement in PAD, and for the Slave River Delta we will
need to apply for a research license, as well as develop agreements with each of
the local groups (most of them have agreements already in place). We can
proceed with these once the project is fully flushed out. In the Saskatchewan
River Delta a signed research agreement between the University, the Village and
the Band exists, but it’s dated. Given all that’s happening and the fact that a
number of projects are converging, maybe it’s time to think about updating it. The
research agreement hasn’t changed to reflect changes in the ethics application. It
might be worthwhile to put together a schematic of all of the projects involved in
order to facilitate an updated research agreement – Tim has the best sense of the
different projects, and can do this.

It also might be helpful to have a discussion about how the DDN and the CCRN
can start to integrate, now that the students are in place. We need to revisit this
with Karl to figure out how his work is structured, and how the CCRN and DDN
overlap. The CCRN are developing what theme the outreach and engagement
aspect of the CCRN is going to take on, and as they do that engaging with the
DDN is important.
3. Delta Day budget and funding

Delta Day is tentatively scheduled for February 2016. Right now the big picture
vision is to bring together all three deltas together, which will require more
resources than we currently have. Does anyone have any ideas for where we can
go to seek funding for this event?
o Connections Grant - August 1st deadline, up to $50,000 (but needs
matching funds)
o Tides Canada
o Internal U of S. conference fund – but the format of the event would have
to be similar to a conference
o Gwenna Moss – Community engagement fund ($6000)
o Walter Duncan Gordon Foundation – they are working on data
management system for Mackenzie Valley Basin that GNWT is a partner
on so there’s a nice linkage there
o Canadian Water Network
o Water Institute at University of Waterloo – GNWT has been working with
them
o Government agencies - Water Security Agency, FSIN, Sask Environment,
SaskPower
o Saskatchewan Eco Network (contact info from Graham)

Will this be a one day event again?
o It might be good to have a two day event given the number of people that
might be there. One day could be for a workshop, and then another day
for the public presentations

A good starting point is to start drawing up an agenda – what would we like to
do?
o One part of it is profiling the projects. We can feature best practices –
insights from each of the projects that are common, so that people can
learn from each other, and find a way to roll that into something.
o SWEEP might be something that the other deltas are interested in as a way
to combine science and community monitoring.
o We could highlight PADEMP, DDN, and other groups that have been
active, and then look for a common thread of knowledge mobilization to
weave throughout.
o One thing we don’t want is two days of presentations – there should be an
interactive portion.
4. Update from Tim re: recent and upcoming presentations

Tim and Chrystal recently went to the NWT, as a part of their work in developing
a Bayesian Belief Network. The goal of the workshop was to present indicators
(Traditional Knowledge and Western Science). There were 16 experts in 2
workshops, and they ranked different indicators.

We realized we inadvertently focused on the delta, with less emphasis on the river
and Fort Smith – this is something we will try and correct as we wrap up SWEEP.

This summer there is a meeting for the International Society for River Science –
one of the components will be on the human dimensions of environmental flow.
Razak will be likely be attending this, and it would be good to have one other
person. Evan will likely be out of the country, but Graham is considering it.
5. Summer meeting schedule

The next meetings will be held on June 30th, from 9AM – 10AM, and on August
14th, from 2PM – 3PM, understanding that not everyone might be able to make it.
6. Budget for community coordinators

Within the budget for the community coordinators, we have money for their
hourly wage, and are suggesting setting aside some of it for travel– is this
acceptable? We don’t know what the travel expectations will be, but we might
need to have it available – but how much should be set aside?

If air travel isn’t required, maybe $2,000 is appropriate. In Fort Chipewyan, the
position might not need to travel, but in the Slave River Delta it will be needed to
get between Fort Res and Fort Smith. We also have money ($10,000) for high
school student assistants, so there is flexibility there.
7. Project Development Group

Have a number of people confirmed for the first meeting – we are hoping this will
take place next week.