Project Development Group
May 25, 2015
Introductions

Jeff Dixon – Lands and Resources Department with Smith’s Landing First Nation

Morgan Voyageur – Community-based monitoring program with Athabasca Chipewyan First
Nation

Trudy King – NWT Metis Nation

Ingrid MacColl – Career transition teacher at Charlebois Community School

Lily McKay-Carriere – Principal at Charlebois Community School

Kelvin McKay – Outfitter, works for government in Cumberland House

Trudy Carlson – Community coordinator in Fort Chipewyan

Jocelyn Martin – Mikisew Cree First Nation

Gary Carriere – Councillor for the Northern Village of Cumberland House, trapper, fisherman,
hunter

Eddy McKay – Community coordinator in Fort Resolution

Kendrick Cardinal – Land-based educator with Athatbasca Delta community schools, Metis Local
125

(not present) Rosy Bjornson - Deninu K'ue First Nation
Overview of Delta Dialogue Network projects

Purpose of the Delta Dialogue Network is to look for ways to learn from each other

Sarah Baines is a Master’s student working on a project in the Peace-Athabasca Delta
o
Sarah is looking at the Aboriginal Base Flow policy created by the Athabasca Chipewyan
First Nation and Mikisew Cree First Nation. This is the minimum amount of water
required to access their traditional territories by boat. She is looking at what the barriers
and opportunities are to putting this policy into practice. The idea for this project came
out of a meeting with the Peace-Athabasca Delta Ecological Monitoring Program
(PADEMP).
o
Sarah will be in Fort Chipewyan from June 7-11, and will be working with the new
Community Coordinator there to meet with people and discuss the project.

Kiri Staples, the project manager for the Delta Dialogue Network, is working on a project in the
Slave River Delta.
o
The project here came out of discussions with the Slave River and Delta Partnership
o
We know there are a lot of research and monitoring programs in the delta, but the
information they generate isn’t always getting to the people who want it and need it.
We will be looking at the tool and strategies that people doing research use to share
information with people in the communities. We want to know what works and what
doesn’t for sharing information.

In the Saskatchewan River Delta, Master’s student Evan Andrews has been working on a project
related to local perceptions of river flow and decision-making about the dam. Through his work
he developed several relationships with people at Charlebois Community School in Cumberland
House.
o
In June, Kiri, Evan, Toddi and an undergraduate student research assistant will be
attending the “Coming Home” celebration in Cumberland House, a celebration of 125
years of education in the community. This will be an opportunity to gather knowledge
form Elders, members, and alumni about why the delta and this event are important to
them. High school students will be hired and trained to gather this information, and take
pictures and video during the celebration.
o
The idea is to create a course that brings the delta’s history and culture into the
classroom. We want to involve students to interact with the community and the event.
The event will involve cultural activities, so there will be more ways for history and
traditions to be part of the celebration. Youth can get a glimpse of the practices.
o
The course (we are calling it Cumberland Delta 10) will be our own curriculum, a locally
developed course with a local focus. The division is providing the opportunity to create
our own course for credits.

Questions/comments
o
For the project about information-sharing (in the Slave River Delta), will information
sharing with government be involved? When governments change, they are the ones
that need information in order to make decisions.

In the Slave River Delta, we will be looking at how information from research
projects is shared, mostly with community members. The Peace-Athabasca
Delta project is more focussed on decision-makers and policy. One of the goals
of our project is to make sure that the information from the individual projects
is shared across deltas, so we get a more comprehensive view and can share
lessons learned.
o
There are different governing processes already in the communities. It is important to
look at the different processes local governments are already engaged in.

In the PAD we are working to get the right approvals from the right people. The
municipality, Metis, ACFN and MCFN all received a letter of introduction. We
are also going through the Band Council resolution process. The Metis has given
us approval to proceed with research, and we are just waiting to hear from
ACFN and MCFN. Draft band resolution documents have been written, and we
will make sure they are approved before moving forward with the research.
o
Where are things at with the culture camp idea?

In addition to attending the celebration event in Cumberland House, there is
also a culture camp taking place in August. We are still waiting on funding to see
if we can do more work around this.

It would be great if a group from the PAD could come and attend the activities
in Cumberland House as well. If a letter is drafted inviting them, they can
present it to the Council for help with funding costs.

More information about the celebration event can be found at
www.charleboiscommunityschool.com. Kiri will send this link around to
everyone.
Budgets and group decision-making

When we wrote the grant, we said that we would spend $7,500 for each project (one in each
delta). We want to make sure that this group makes sure that money is spent well. How should
decisions about the budget be made? E-mail? Vote? Another meeting?
o
People probably need more information about the budget. Is it all going to travel costs,
or is there money for end products as well? End products are good because we are
interested in hearing from other deltas. When people connect it burns a fire in terms of
what you are passionate about.

Where is the Saskatchewan River Delta project money going?
o
It is going to transportation, paying high school students, data collection materials, and
some sort of end product.
o
It would be good to have a digital end product so that we can share it with other deltas.
o
For this project, talking with Kendrick (as a land-based educator) and learning from
other deltas and sharing information will be helpful. If he and a group of students could
come to the Cumberland House celebration to share information, we could then do an
exchange where students from Cumberland House go up to the PAD for a couple of
days.
o
Experiential learning is great, especially for remote communities. It’s also important to
include adults who may not know how to use the land, if they grew up in town for
example.

More information is required about the budgets. Kiri will send this out.