Unique Features of this Partnership
As the first Tribal Council – municipal partnership to participate in the CEDI program, Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs (BATC) and the City of North Battleford have offered many lessons to First Nation – municipal collaboration, namely on multi-Nation representation, governance and jurisdiction. Given their differing jurisdictions, this partnership identified shared learning opportunities, specifically on representative Indigenous employment and urban reserve development. BATC and the City of North Battleford participated in CEDI 2016 – 2019.
Areas of Collaboration – Joint CED Themes
- Indigenous Employment and Representative Workforce at City of North Battleford
- Identification of Regional Economic Development Opportunities
- Creation of Urban Reserve Guidelines: Benefits and Considerations for Urban Reserves in Saskatchewan
Accomplishments
- Established Working Group Terms of Reference
- Joint Workshop to explore collaboration on Indigenous employment in the Battlefords region (October 2017)
- Drafted a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the Joint Indigenous Employment Strategy (December 2017)
- Finalized the Joint Indigenous Employment Strategy (JIES) (February 2018)
- Completed JIES Phase 1: Work Experience Initiative: 8 six-week work experience positions for BATC labour force at the City of North Battleford (April – May 2018).
- Offered the 8 from JIES Phase 1, with opportunity to participate in Phase 2: Representative Seasonal Hiring: City of North Battleford seasonal employment opportunities (May – September 2018).
- Received 2018 Affinity Credit Union Economic Partnership Award at the Saskatchewan Economic Development Association/ Saskatchewan First Nations Economic Development Network Conference in Saskatoon
- Joint Workshop to explore regional economic development opportunities, including but not limited to employment, tourism and TLE lands (November 2018)
- Joint-issued RFP for creation of Regional Economic Development Agreement (January 2019)
- Co-hosted Joint Workshop to discuss a first draft of a Joint Regional Economic Development Agreement (JREDA) and other options for further collaboration (June 2019)
- Jointly developed Urban Reserve Guidelines (November 2019)
- Co-hosted final CEDI Working Group Meeting and approved the Moving Forward Together: Final CEDI Reflections summary report (November 2019)
In the Media:
- The Battlefords News Optimist, December 23, 2016, “City and BATC join forces on economic development”
- The Battlefords News Optimist, April 13, 2017, “Economic development working group one step closer”
- The Battlefords News Optimist, March 27, 2018, “Much accomplished during Puffalt’s tenure at City Hall”
- Battlefords Now, April 3, 2018, “City, BATC launch joint Indigenous employment strategy”
- Battlefords Now, May 3, 2018, “City, BATC honoured with economic partnership award”
Why Work Together?
“The Community Economic Development Initiative provides the First Nations and the City of North Battleford with the opportunity to acknowledge each other’s contributions and to value the sustainability and growth of the local economy. This continues to be the common denominator in our partnered success while continuing to eliminate barriers such as racism through a process of reconciliation of the past and a cultural understanding of each other.”
- Chief Lori Whitecalf (former Chief, Sweetgrass First Nation)
“We are honoured to partner with BATC on the joint CEDI initiative in order to increase cultural understanding and build stronger relationships. The Terms of Reference is the first step towards an Accord which will set the vision and tone to provide leadership to our communities. It is our wish and decision to respectfully work together in friendship for economic benefit. To date, we have successfully identified common priorities and economic development initiatives that we will further collaborate on so we may share in the success as we move our region forward as one.”
- Mayor Bater, City of North Battleford
Next Steps
This partnership has graduated from the CEDI program. BATC and City of North Battleford have expressed a continued interest in promoting regional economic development and growth in the Battlefords region, and both sides recognize the importance of the other in achieving that. Moving forward, they have expressed interest in administrative-level and political-level meetings in order to share information about some of the initiatives and developments in their communities and organizations.