Aboriginal Reference Group Meeting Minutes

Draft Minutes

Opening ceremonies were started at 9:20 by Paul Skanks and the meeting was called to order around 9:45am at the Thunder Bird House in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

ARG reviewed the agenda and determined that they would like to get a briefing on events from their last meeting to now. Pat Baxter provided an overview of her activities and issues for discussion by the ARG. These can be summarized as the following:

• The ARG budget will have to be negotiated from each Joint Table therefore the workplan is important to finalize;

• The Co-ordinator has been informed that VSI Secretariate is only funded to March 2002, this may impact on the ARG mandate and term;

• Funding is held up at VSI due to Government withholding payments, this is effecting payment of Co-ordinators invoices and other invoices at VSI;

• Schedules of joint consultations are very quickly provided, not providing sufficient time to adequately participate within some events;

• There is a lot of excitement and interest from other VSI tables with respect to the ARG, there has been many requests to participate at this meeting and get ARG opinions on issues;

• ARG needs a process that will identify names of individuals that should be contacted to participate at some of the VSI meetings and joint table issue sessions;

• VSI officials would like the ARG to allocate their budget by activity on the workplan;

• Communications from VSI is going directly to ARG not through Aboriginal Co-ordinator;

• There is concern that some of the joint tables are satisfied when they have one individual Aboriginal participating at meetings - example used that at the Capacity meeting an ARG could not participate since Alwin Morris was all ready attending. When it was explained that having more than one Aboriginal person attending would be advised the Co-ordinator was informed that was not enough room;

• Briefing on the September 6th meeting with the national Aboriginal organizations on the VSI and providing them with 5,000.00 to produce analysed positions on the draft Accord.

Business Arising from the Briefing

• The ARG discussed these issues and determined that they would seek clarification from the VSI officials when they arrived at the meetings on some of these matters.

• Several ARG members related concern that the VSI had not identified a budget for the ARG before now.

• Concern was raised about the role of the national Aboriginal organizations, why they were paid and how will their positions effect or impact on the work of the ARG - some members felt if the national Aboriginal organization supercede the ARG work some members would not be prepared to continue on ARG;

• Others related concern about the lack co-ordinated communication within the VSI to the Aboriginal Co-ordinator.

• Concern was raised by ARG members regarding the broad consultation process, when will the VSI and budget permit this process to happen. If it does not, there is concern about carrying on as reference group.

• Finally, the greatest concern was about financing the ARG at a level that will support good input from the Aboriginal community.

Terms of Reference

Draft Accord Consultation

• ARG did not feel comfortable providing immediate in-depth feedback on the draft Accord at this meeting.(Members were reminded that the Steering Committee had agreed to put this on the agenda for consultation feedback from the ARG);

• ARG members wanted more time to review the Accord and suggested that the Steering Committee be tasked with preparing a position on the Accord on behalf of the ARG;

• ARG urged VSI officials to find if the deadline of October 19 could be extended for Accord input;

• ARG asked if VSI Task Force members could determine if the Steering Committee budget of $15,000.00 for them to meeting on the Accord;

Accord Feedback

• The Accord's stated values may not be interpreted in the same way for Aboriginal people. Due to Aboriginal people's experiences and relationship with Canada their view point of the values differs. The wording of democracy, active citizenship, social justice and inclusion is wording that Aboriginal people do not necessarily see themselves within.

• Aboriginal people do not necessarily see themselves as Canadian citizens; Most Aboriginal people do not feel they have experienced social justice within Canada; and inclusion is not appropriately described as respecting diversity, when Aboriginal peoples in Canada are part of the Constitution and have a unique standing and relationship with Canada's governments. The Accords values do not acknowledge these points making it difficult for Aboriginal people to participate or feel included in the meanings.

• The values should specifically include the Provinces and Territories within Canada;

• The values should acknowledge and include formal and inform organizations within the voluntary sector;

• The principles need to be broader applying to all informal organizations within the voluntary sector;

• The principles need to have some binding commitment to sustain the relationship between the government and voluntary sector;

• Aboriginal community does not have formal infrastructure within the voluntary sector - with the exception of Friendship Centres - this needs to be addressed within the Accord;

• The benefits section of the Accord should be moved to the front of the document, with an examples that Aboriginal people could relate to within their own community, acknowledging the role self governing nations etc.;

• The Aboriginal voluntary sector must be reached, not just the political organizations;

• The ARG may want to look at a separate Aboriginal Accord for the voluntary sector;

• The existing values within the Accord could include a statement that would relate to Aboriginal people and their values;

• More analysis is required to fine tune recommendations and opinions of how the Accord impacts on the Aboriginal voluntary sector.

Saturday September 30, 2001

Funding ARG

• Havi indicated that she was unaware that VSI officials had indicated in July they would find funding prior to a workplan being finalized. She indicated that she is committed to finding resources with VSI or at the Joint Tables for the ARG, however she needs the workplan and proposed budget to get the ball rolling;

• Havi also informed the ARG that she has been making her rounds to the joint tables informing them of the ARG and their intention to work in many of the areas that the tables are working on. She indicated to date that these briefing have been encouraging and she looks forward to bringing the workplan to many of the tables for consideration.

• The ARG expressed concern about funding the activities of the group over the period of a year. The ARG reiterated that if their workplan is not sufficient several members may not want to continue their work on the ARG. The concern raised is that is the perception of token input on VSI matters from the Aboriginal community. Havi indicated this is not the intent of the VSI and confirmed again, she would pursue support for the ARG activities.

Flexibility of Dates

• Havi indicated that some of the dates have been inflexible due to their schedules to have Memorandums to Cabinet (ie NVI) submitted and/or announcements in December like the Accord to be signed by the end of the year. She did indicate none of the other tables are as advanced with time scheduled or activities and that the ARG is in a position to respond in the timely manner to these other tables. She advised that the ARG should not get too frustrated because the work is just beginning.

Workplan review and Budget Allocation

• The workplan was reviewed and catalogued to respond to the different mandates of the joint tables. Workplan activities were increased to include activities under the Accord and NVI tables;

• The ARG provided direction on the overall costs within each catalogued area such as Capacity, Awareness etc. The ARG did not want to line budget each activity for VSI;

• Budgets were based on level of activity and effort within each area. The Aboriginal Co-ordinator was directed to detail a budget separate to the workplan for submission to VSI;

• The Aboriginal Co-ordinator was asked to revise the workplan, terms of reference, prepare the budget and send an accompanying letter to the Joint Co-ordinating Chairpersons regarding the ARG request for funding and outlining the concerns that may impact on the ARG involvement as a reference group.

Letter to the Co-Chairs

• The ARG reviewed the issues to bring to the attention of the Joint Co-Chairs that would accompany the workplan, budget and terms of reference. These are: resource the ARG, lack of flexibility, communications, Northern involvement and draft Accord consultations. The Aboriginal Co-ordinator was asked to draft this letter, distribute it to the Steering Committee of the ARG for final approval.

Communications Plan and Plain Letter Text

• ARG felt that the communications plan and plain letter text should be finalized at a later date. These issues were tabled.

• Trudy Schroder from the Awareness Table who was scheduled to attend the meeting on Saturday to up date the ARG on their workplan failed to attend.

Next Steps

• The ARG agreed that a conference call may be required once a response from the VSI is received on the workplan and budget. The Aboriginal Co-ordinator will inform all.