Check against delivery

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to speak with you at this very important workshop. Over the past year as Deputy Minister, I have had the opportunity to meet and talk with some of you. I am delighted to see you, and also to have the opportunity to meet those of you I have not previously met.

I would like to express my appreciation to Dr. Rod Macdonald for undertaking the role of Chair of this workshop and to acknowledge his leadership role in conducting research on urban Aboriginal governance in Canada through the joint research project undertaken by the National Association of Friendship Centres and the Law Commission of Canada.

Much research and thinking has been conducted over the past decade both in Canada and internationally on good governance and on its relationship to sustainable, successful societies. We have much to share in this room about the successes of good governance.

I am pleased to see many practitioners, academics and NGOs present. This community has an important role to play in this new relationship. Your experience, the research you conduct and the programs you design and deliver with Aboriginal partners can have important implications. First Nations and DIAND can continue to benefit from your advice and involvement in initiatives to strengthen governance.

The Aboriginal leaders invited to this Think Tank are representative of the kinds of good governance initiatives that are making a difference. We can learn from their experiences and look for ways to assist and foster their work.

Over the past year, we at DIAND and some First Nation leaders have been working on a new direction in support of good governance—The Governance Continuum. We are at a point where dialogue about the meaning of governance, our shared goals and challenges, and the various approaches to strengthening governance and developing capacity can help shape a "futures" agenda.

My hope is that our discussions today, tomorrow and beyond will better focus all our efforts in strengthening Aboriginal Governance in Canada.

Tonight, I would like to contribute to this discussion by posing three questions and offering some personal perspectives for your consideration of the governance challenge:

1. First, how to define this challenge? We have heard speakers talk about good governance and how it supports sustainable, successful communities. What are the key factors of governance and capacity development that differentiate successful communities and how can we learn from them?

   Some of the questions that we may want to examine include:

   • what further research is needed to demonstrate the role of governance in contributing to economic and social development;

   • how to shape a "futures" governance agenda;

   • how to translate this agenda into action;

   • how to capture and communicate the success stories that will help to create some momentum;

   • and what strategies can move this agenda forward quickly.

2. Second, in this complex environment, how can we build an approach that brings together all of the key players, in which they share goals and design and implement approaches that can withstand the test of time and that will produce results valued by citizens?

3. Third, how can the key players go forward? What are the changes that are needed to address this governance challenge, and how can Aboriginal communities be supported in developing and shaping governance capacity development and implementing governance programming?

So, having offered this agenda, let me be the first to suggest that I do not have all of the answers. But I do have views that I would like to share with you which may generate discussion tomorrow and beyond.

First, good governance matters for sustainable, successful communities. RCAP recognized this and the Government of Canada agrees. That is why Strengthening Aboriginal Governance is one of the four strategic objectives of Gathering Strength—Canada's Aboriginal Action Plan.

Good governance, I would suggest to you, is the underpinning to supporting sustainable, successful communities and, in this way, to strengthening the relationship between Canada and First Nations. The importance of effective governance to sustained social and economic development is becoming generally accepted among international organizations, governments, aboriginal peoples, and academics and practitioners. In regards to Aboriginal governance, I particularly want to acknowledge the ground-breaking work of Joseph Kalt and Stephen Cornell at the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. They have conducted research over the past 12 years into the relationship between good governance and economic development in U.S. tribes.

We have also been working to develop a Canadian Aboriginal Policy Research Agenda which will support research work on governance and its relationship to successful communities. This is an important area in which more rigorous study and analysis is needed.

Moreover, the work of CIDA and IDRC with developing nations provides important programmatic advice on capacity development. That is why we are so pleased that Rosemary Proctor has agreed to share her lessons learned from the CIDA-funded South Africa/Canada Program on Governance.

How First Nations structure their governments and build their capacity to function effectively will have a long-term impact on how sustainable and successful these communities are. That is why we supported well over one hundred capacity building projects last year under Gathering Strength.

As I said at the outset, we are not starting something new here; rather, we are trying to build on ongoing successes and learn from each other.

Next, shared frameworks provide the essential context to allow us to move forward together. A few years ago, a number of senior executives—one of whom is today the Clerk of the Privy Council—participated in a year-long study of Governing in an Information Society.

A key finding was that:

"As the number of players in the process of governance multiply ...we need to invest more time and attention in developing a shared understanding of where we want to go, in a more systematic process of agenda-setting.

Such a framework is the essential context that can allow the multiplying players in the governance process mutually to coordinate their actions. The development and continual evolution of that strategic framework, of that learning environment, is an essential part of effective governance and leadership in an information society."

I view this workshop as an opportunity to build such a shared framework while clearly recognizing that a shared framework doesn't mean a "cookie cutter" approach where one size and shape fits all.

And finally, the relationship between First Nations and Government is changing, requiring us to rethink "who does what" in capacity development. Government's role has been shifting. In the past, the government's thinking on how to achieve sustainable, successful communities would have been animated by a "doer" mindset -- the department's role would be to design and deliver programs in support of this goal.

About a decade ago, this mindset started to change. Governments realized that a number of trends were driving them to reconsider what they could do:

• globalization and the information revolution meant that individual governments could no longer try to solve all problems -- the issues were too complex and required many players to address them;

• a more well educated citizenry were demanding to play a more active role in shaping policies and programs. We entered an era of enhanced "citizen engagement"; and

• fiscal pressures were impinging on the ability of governments to be all things to all people.

In short, these challenges forced governments to look for new ways to respond. It meant that governments needed to work with others in defining the problem and creating frameworks within which all players could contribute.

Marcel Massé, when he was President of CIDA, described the situation this way:

"These long-term trends ... require a much greater level of partnership between the governors and the governed, between the politicians and the bureaucracy, between the people being served and the various institutions through which services are delivered."

He concluded, "These methods of governance-partnership and the team approach—involve a massive change in values and attitudes in the public sector."

With that backdrop, DIAND's role is shifting. A number of specific events in the last five years have had a major impact on DIAND's thinking about the way it does business. A key event was formal recognition of the inherent right of self-government by the Government of Canada in 1995. This was followed by the RCAP report and the Government's response in Gathering Strength.

The end result has been the ongoing development of new government-to-government relationships, in which there is a fundamental reorientation in how the Crown and Aboriginal peoples relate to one another, and in the roles and responsibilities of the parties.

We are engaged in redefining this relationship through self-government agreements and other shifts in how DIAND and First Nations work together on programs and service delivery.

It remains a given that there will always be an ongoing relationship between the Crown and Aboriginal peoples, but DIAND must rethink its role and shift to being facilitative while Aboriginal communities build up the "government" side of the equation to develop more independence and autonomy.

Change of this nature requires political will, on the part of both Government and First Nations. The political will to change is emerging and the Government of Canada as a whole has made this commitment to change in Gathering Strength, and DIAND, for its part, is changing the way it works with First Nations.

The "Supporting the Front Line" initiative, led by DIAND Associate Deputy Minister, Dennis Wallace, is about changing the role of the front-line officer to include that of facilitator in the context of building capacity. For example, the Alberta Region is working very closely with the Chiefs of Alberta to address the issue of First Nations governments' accountability to their citizens, and the B.C. Regional office has developed a capacity-building workshop for Front-line officers, which is being offered to all DIAND offices across the country.

As for First Nations, it will be for the leadership to prepare their communities for change by involving citizens in the change process, as we have seen in a number of communities.

Harvard's research has shown that the effectiveness of governance institutions depends on their legitimacy and a key aspect of legitimacy is cultural fit. "Citizen engagement" is a key to enabling First Nations to design, develop and implement effective governance institutions.

Community participation is key to moving forward on the governance agenda by providing citizens an opportunity to participate in building shared frameworks in which citizens have a voice, and setting goals that are valued by citizens. This is happening, and we need to learn from and build on successes.

All of the First Nation leaders present are involved in exciting change initiatives. I hope they will all have an opportunity to describe these to the other participants during the course of this think tank.

The challenge in building this new relationship is that it will not be easy or quick. Achieving new arrangements involves fundamental changes in attitudes and existing relationships that are deeply entrenched.

For First Nations, it involves such challenges as redesigning their government structures and the transformation of Indian Act bands into effective First Nations governments with the ability to further take control over matters internal and integral to their communities. For DIAND, it means shifting from a "we know better" mindset to "how can we better enable" mindset. These changes have started to happen.

I truly expect and hope that these initiatives will, over time, lead to self-government arrangements. But we cannot wait for the signing of self-government agreements to advance the good governance theme. We need to move the "futures" governance agenda into the present. We need to find ways to introduce the notions of good governance into particular areas, such as education, child welfare, or housing. We need to find ways for DIAND to be ready and able to support removing disincentives to change wherever there is a need and a willingness to embrace change.

Sharing among First Nation communities is an important part of capacity development. There are many examples within government and among First Nations where the creation of networks in which practitioners share and exchange best practices and more importantly, where communities of practice have emerged that satisfy an ongoing need and contribute to furthering capacity development.

The Governance Continuum can provide a framework for capacity development. As I mentioned at the outset, an important initiative that some First Nation leaders and DIAND officials have taken this past year has been the development of the Governance Continuum, about which Barry Dewar will speak tomorrow. I believe it, or some other such approach which may emerge from our discussions, is a necessary precondition to moving forward – the shared framework I spoke about earlier. Such a framework, if properly designed, developed and implemented, can lever all our resources to a common goal. I believe that it should take as its starting point that good governance matters, and it should allow for an evolving shift in roles in developing governing capacities.

I hope that our discussions can contribute to advancing such a framework by discussing what governance means, why it is important, what experiences we can build on, and if the Continuum is found to have merit, how can we improve and further this initiative. For it or any other framework to be useful, it must be shared.

DIAND, Aboriginal communities, governance practitioners and academics all have a key role to play in the changes that need to take place. For Aboriginal communities it means taking control and designing the institutional and human resources; for practitioners, it means working together and sharing information and research.

For DIAND, it means better integrating capacity development initiatives in support of programming needs - all within a shared framework.

To further our work, I suggest that we look at building a number of virtual networks that address the demand for knowledge and know-how in areas such as constitution-building, education, etc. Over time these could evolve into ongoing "communities of practice" and institutions where First Nations share expertise and experiences, set research agendas, develop and implement action plans to close the gap, and implement governance programming, as necessary.

So, to wrap up, let me repeat:

1. Good governance matters;

2. Shared frameworks provide the context within which to move forward;

3. The relationships in terms of "who does what when" to support capacity development and strengthen governance capacities are shifting and can give effect to stronger government-to-government relationships; and

4. The Governance Continuum is one approach to help us by providing a map that can allow all the players to coordinate their actions in defining the problem and developing solutions.

I said at the outset that this was a very important gathering. I hope this workshop will be the start of a very productive ongoing relationship of collaboration, learning and agenda-setting among the many parties who have a role to play in strengthening aboriginal governance.

Thank you.

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