Economic Development

"To bring together industry leaders and Aboriginal organizations to share best practices in partnership building and promote further engagement from both communities, the Public Policy Forum organized a national workshop at The Westin in Ottawa on June 4, 2009, with a private reception the evening before.

"As the digital age continues to change Canada's social, political, and economic landscapes, Aboriginal peoples are responding. Having resisted overt assimilation and initiating a process of restoring identity, Aboriginal cultures face new challenges, such as the pervasive reality of information and communications technologies (ICT). These new technologies, especially the Internet, hold promise for Aboriginal nations. If used effectively and harnessed appropriately, ICT can be a valuable tool to propel forward their process of cultural renewal."

"As the Information Age transforms Canadian society, Aboriginal Canadians can not risk being left behind. According to this report, information and communications technologies (ICT) "offer critical opportunities to strengthen Aboriginal cultural identities, promote sustainable community development and achieve greater self-reliance." These national recommendations reveal a critical opportunity for Canada's First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples to leapfrog into the Information Age."

"Poverty is still the norm for most of Canada’s First Nations, despite ongoing efforts over many years to stimulate reserve economies, including significant investment by governments trying to ‘prime the economic pump’. There are, however, some good examples where the pattern has been changed and communities are breaking the chains of poverty. There are lessons to be learned from both within Canada and outside as to what can be done to alleviate poverty and stimulate economic growth.

"Membertou’s impressive economic growth and self-sufficiency over the past 15 years has underlined the limitations of the Indian Act in defining citizens and restricting development due to regulations on land use."

"This paper will focus on the human resources challenges that face First Nations communities and their governments in rebuilding their capacity for good governance and in meeting their sovereign obligations. The vision that First Nations people see where they are self-sufficient, autonomous and significant contributors to society requires a paradigm shift for the federal government in its Indian policy.

Case study of Membertou First Nation, representing the principle of "Accontability and Reporting" as part of National Center for First Nation Governance's Best Practices series.

"The Governance Best Practices Report profiles the work of 25 First Nations, tribes and aboriginal organizations across Canada and in the United States. Based on NCFNG's principles of effective governance, each profile provides the reader with a brief snapshot of strategies, techniques, procedures or processes that produce efficiencies in governance."

"This paper examines how the actions of Native nations themselves can either undermine or strengthen their own enterprises, drawing on extensive research carried out by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development at Harvard University and the Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy at the University of Arizona. Of course many of the things that determine business outcomes lie beyond the control of the nations that own the businesses.

"Conventional wisdom suggests that politics and business need to be completely separate from one other. This policy brief suggests that this 'wisdom' needs to be re-examined."