Economic Ecosystem

A truly sustainable economy is not purely manmade. It is a breathing entity with seasons and fluidity. It is something we work with, something we try to synchronize with as we might do with a regional climate. We fail when we try to control it as western economists do.

Companies always view a quarterly "loss" or stagnation of profit as a bad thing. I think that's wrong; it is a necessary season as the daylight hours lengthen or shorten; or rainfall increases or decreases; or temperature rises or lowers. But when we push too hard for artificial and continual growth we end up with exhausted resources, over-saturated markets, mass consumption culture, etc.  

Rather than thinking of economy as some lifeless abstract concept, think of it as living ecosystem. Now imagine what would happen to any ecosystem if we tried to artificially control some aspect of it. Say we found a way to artificially super heat all the lakes and waterways in a region to force evaporation/condensation, and hence, rain. The ecosystem would experience continual rains, but at what cost?  

A little rain is great for growing crops or ensuring lush vegetation, but if we force it to a level that denies natural cycles, we end up with:

• flooded land
• nutrient stripped soil (as the water run off would leech out the nutrients)
• disrupted river and lake beds
• dying or dead aquatice life, which then affects the food chain
• etc.

Another example - suppose we were to specifically try to eradicate all wolves in a region because short-sightedly concluded that we would have more big game for ourselves without competition from wolves. Although, if we did that, there would be no natural mechanism in place to remove the old and sick from the herds, thereby diminishing overall quality of the wild meat and maybe even threatening us with disease.

Or what if we somehow figured out a way to make it daytime 24 hours a day. Party time! No night! Of course, if we did that, the scorching sun would damage plants, reducing food sources for humans and animals alike. Then entire food chain would begin to fall apart. Not to mention the net negative psychological effect on people and animals with respect to sleep patterns.  

With virtually any aspect of an ecosystem, too much of something is damaging, if not destructive, to the entire ecosystem itself. This is no different when we consider economies. Economies are not simply about money, jobs, businesses; they are holistic in nature. Economies are not rigid structures, but rather, they are fluid, moving, breathing, changing ecosystems. Economies are not one size fits all, but are unique for every region and community, each possessing distinct identities and features.  

This is crucial to understand if we wish to create true sustainable, meaningful community economic development. Too many communities look to mega-corporations from outside that ecosystem to come in and wave a magic economic wand (perhaps a benefit agreement of some sort), expecting that this will fix everything. Benefit agreements or partnerships are not bad, but they cannot be the driver and shaper of local/regional ecosystem (i.e. economy). The mega-corporations lack the understanding, the connection, and the personal stake in caring for the local ecosystem to adequately be able to "develop" it. They often come in with cookie cutter approaches to what the economy is "supposed" to look like.  

This, generally will not be sustainable. They are there to extract maximum benefit as quickly as possible without regard to natural cycles within the ecosystem. They come in like a wooden stake driven into the chest of a local ecosystem and stay until they have taken literally everything they want and then move on, leaving a gaping hole behind. It is not often easy or swift to heal from the hole left behind and often results in communities bleeding their residents who move away to follow the jobs.  

Some may call me idealistic in my thinking, but be that is it may, there a number of actions that people can take.  

On the "idealistic" side, it is an outright rejection of capitalism and its mass-consumption artificial culture. More pragmatically, it means exploring alternative methods for local trade and production and only producing as much as is needed for living. Local farms and gardens, barter exchanges, local stores, locally produced goods, etc. are all parts of the solution. If natural resources are to be developed, then less excessive extraction methods need to be considered and longer term thinking is required versus the short term "extract it all now" type of thinking.  

Coops, worker coops, social enterprises are all tangible mechanisms that can help create a better balance with a greater level of synchronization with the natural rhythms of the economic ecosystem.  

All said, at the core, pure capitalism is inconsistent and at odds with true community economic development in my humble opinion.

Indigenous Women - Foundation to Economy and Nationhood

I just attended the awareness march/rally for missing and murdered women (well over 600 now with no public inquiry, no police action, no arrests, mostly Indigenous women). The health of a nation, including its economy, depends on the health if its women.

Many of our Indigenous nations are suffering. The women in our nations are often the most impoverished... period. According to Statistics Canada data (contained in this fact sheet), nearly half of all Indigenous women live in poverty with the average ANNUAL incomes of a mere $13,300 – over $6,000 lower than non Indigenous women.

A sign that I saw one of the women holding said it all:

“Indigenous women are the heart of our families”

They are not only the heart of our families, but our very nations. Yet, how many women are recognized in leadership roles? How many are able to get into that old boys club that came as a “gift” from our colonial oppressors?

Why is it that our women are the ones being so systematically targeted? Not just by killers, but by poverty, and prison. Poverty and prison go hand in hand. Take for example Geraldine Beardy from Winnipeg. She was living in poverty and hungry. She was caught stealing a can of lunch meat by the store owner. The store owner beat her, after which, she fled for her life and later died in the hospital.

What justice was meted out for this beautiful Indigenous woman? NOTHING. All charges against the murderer were dropped (article here).

What if Geraldine had not been killed? She would have been punished by a justice system designed to discriminate against the poor. Indigenous women are increasingly being institutionalized. Between 1996 and 2002 the number of Indigenous women in Federal prisons increased by 36.7% (see this report http://www.laa.gov.nl.ca/laa/naws/pdf/nwac-legal.pdf). Since the Conservatives’ new crime, punishment and prison agenda, this rate is only expected to grow.

Injustice against our Indigenous women is not new. It has been a constant weapon against our nations for decades, if not longer. Many may remember the outrage of the story of Helen Betty Osborne and the utter failure of the justice system to help or protect Indigenous women in any way. This outrage sparked the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry in the 1990’s, and yet very few of the recommendations were really implemented.

Now all of these examples and discussions are the “big” items: murders, crimes, and injustice. Yet our women face sexism, and racism and a constant barrage of put-downs that seek to kill their spirits.

A young Indigenous woman made this video to illustrate what our beautiful Indigenous women are put through on a daily basis.

The danger in all of this is that we lose the heart of our nations and our families – our Indigenous women. They are critical to our cultures, our next generations, and our national well-being (which includes our Indigenous economies). A growing body of research worldwide (one report here and here) has recognized that investing in women is the best ROI (if you excuse me using an annoying capitalist term).

Indigenous women are the hearts of our nations.

So what can we do? I will speak for a moment to Indigenous men.

You want to be a warrior? Then you better respect women. Defend them against racists and ignorant buffoons. Discourage men from making sexist or lewd jokes. See the true beauty of Indigenous women. They are not objects. They are women with dreams, aspirations, wisdom, love, a past and a future.

Be a listener and hear them out. Do your share of work around the home and with kids. Participate in rallies, educate people, and spread the word to raise awareness.

The greatest and most powerful action a modern warrior can take is to raise up our Indigenous women.

When our women rise up, our families will be strong, our nations will rise up, and our economic well-being will follow. This is the foundation and starting point for our Indigenous nations and our Indigenous economies.

Indigenous Thinkers

Over the past few months I have been inspired, honoured with learning from so many great Indigenous thinkers.

For starters, there has been so many great discussions in my LinkedIn Group, Indigenous Economic Development. Generally speaking, everyone is in agreement that economic development is important. However, there are many different approaches to this.

For starters, the word "development" itself carries colonial baggage - often used to mean resource development or development of mechanisms by which a financial profit can be gained from the Earth. Terminology and baggage aside, there is also a tension between colonial (aka mainstream or Western) approaches and culture/tradional ways of life.

In fact, many people often believe that culture and economy are disjoint. The fact is that they are not. Even colonial nations have culture embedded within their economies. The first problem is that economy takes the driver seat and priority over culture. The second problem is that colonial culture intentionally places a greater importance on profit and financial gain than culture, environment, people.

What has set Indigenous peoples apart is that their approach ensures that economy is NOT the driver. Rather each sphere of life plays an interconnected role. Culture, Social, Recreation, Economy, Health, etc., all play a role, holistically, to ensure balanced prosperity of person, spirit, nature.

When you really think about it, what price are we willing to pay for "successful" economic development? Are we willing to adopt colonial practices at the cost of our cultures, our ways of life?

What if we didn't have to adopt colonial practices to be thriving, people, fully meeting our potential? What if we didnt have to sacrifice our culture, our ways of life, our spirits to be "successful?"

Here is what I'm thinking. First we need to define what success means to us. Then we need to articulate how we can meet our needs (core meaning of economy) in a way that honours our ways of life, our cultures, our languages even.

In a future post, I would like to begin diving into this in greater detail. Through your comments/feedback, and through learning from the many great thinkers and leaders I am blessed to be contact with.

International Women's Day and CED

Today is International Women's Day. I thought I would take the time to celebrate this day with a blog post around the crucial importance of women to communities, generally, and community economic development, specifically.

Throughout history, among Indigenous communities, women were honored as equals to men. They held positions of leadership, they took on warrior roles, they hunted as much as the men did, they taught, offered guidance. They were highly valued and respected.

A well known Cheyenne Proverb states, "A nation is not conquered until the hearts of its women are on the ground. Then it is done, no matter how brave its warriors or strong its weapons."

This was level of respect and understanding of the importance of women was disrupted on Turtle Island (aka North America) with the influx of empire-based cultures. Most of such cultures, from 3rd world to 1st world, have treated women as having lesser value, such as:
 - Treating women as property
 - Treating them as children of a lesser god (in some cultures)
 - Viewing them as burdens to their families.
 - Forcing them into marriages.
 - In extreme cases, women are sold as though they were objects of trade
 - In "1st world" nations, they have been often considered less qualified for leadership or positions of influence
 - They were denied the right to vote, left in the kitchens
 - For a long time, rape by their husbands was not recognized

Even today, nations that are so-called champions of human rights, such as Canada, refuse to recognize the value and role women play in the health of a nation and its economy.

We must, as Indigenous peoples and communities, reclaim the esteem of women. Consider community and its economic health if women were not around:
 - Their communication style is one of peace, generally.
 - Communication from women is relational (rather than competitive as with men)
 - They bring forth the future generations into our communities through child birth.
 - They are the first teachers of all our future generations
 - Women are far more likely to care for children even if they are working outside the home.
 - As mothers, they take on the roles of teacher, counsellor, tutor, nurse/doctor, operational manager (managing the complex tasks of maintaining a household)

Pre-contact, women set up and took down camps (I am speaking of Anishinaabe people), hunted small game, cared for the children, taught and trained children in various skills, prepared big game and cooked the meat, made clothing and tools, and so much more that I could list.

Putting this in a modern context.... Not much has changed. Women still take on these roles, often with limited support from us men. If you remove all what women do, economies would simply collapse.

It is time that we strive to honour women for the selfless and tireless work that they do to keep this world afloat. It is time we recognize that our communities can never have a thriving economy without first acknowledging and celebrating our Indigenous women.

CED Capacity Tool

For the past year, I have been working on developing a tool to assist communities in assessing their Community Economic Development capacity. The tool, developed (for now) in Excel, is built according to the this model:


Each of the 'boxes' around the circle have a set of questions that drill down to the concrete level to assist communities in translating the results of the assessment directly into action plans.

One thing I will say, some of the words I have used in this model can be slightly misleading. For example, when I write "Industrial Site," it is not intended in the traditional mainstream sense of big cities. An industrial site could be a gravel pit, forestry (selective harvesting), a sweet grass field, etc. The site, for the purposes of considering this model does not need to be a profit (financial) generating site either. Direct financial gain is not the only form of value. The cultural and spiritual value of a site is equally important and definitely important to note in planning so that they are not interfered with by any potential developments.

In any case, if any of my readers are interested in receiving a copy of this tool, subscribe to my blog with your email and I will send it to you.

Ken

Focus and Canada’s Lord of the Rings

I was re-watching one of my favourite movie series, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the other day. One of the things I had noted in the story was the focus various characters kept and how that impacted them personally.

Merry and Pippin, the two younger Hobbits, only focused on the here and now. Their goals were simple; stay alive, eat, drink, and take joy in whatever comforts they can find wherever their journey would take them. Frodo was focused on the long term goal of bringing the ring to Mount Doom and could endure present hardships in light of his far off goal. Samwise was purely focused on protecting and helping Frodo complete his task and, more importantly, the journey home.

Most of the heroic characters (Legolas, Aragorn, Gimli) were focused very much on protecting the Hobbits at all costs. Those who failed Frodo, such as when Boromir tried to take the ring, failed because they were not focused on protection or the journey of the Hobbits, but on the power of the ring and how it might be a useful tool in their war against Sauron.

Gandalf had always kept his focus on protection and guidance of the Hobbits. In particular, he imparted much wisdom upon Frodo – wisdom that would later prove critical to Frodo’s success. With this focus, Gandalf remained true and dedicated to loyalty.

These characters, who had never faltered from their paths, kept a vision of the goal – the victory – in mind at all times. It enabled them to keep perspective no matter how dark things looked at various times in their journeys.

Interestingly though, was the results for those characters in the story who did not keep a vision of their desired goals fixed in mind. Saruman The White, described as the head of good wizards and greatest among them, had studied deep into “ways” of the enemy. He had even used a seeing stone, which allowed him to see the workings of the enemy. It was this focus on the details of all the dark tidings and challenges before him and his allies that his focus began to blur. Rather than seeing a vision of the victory he hoped to achieve, he became lost in the despair of all the day to day evils and the enormity of the full breadth of the challenge before him. As a result, he lost his hope and any vision of an alternative to failing against the challenges of Sauron.

The Steward of Gondor had also used a seeing stone. His city, bearing the full brunt of the Sauron’s armies and incursions in the lands of men and elves, had seen the evils and challenges of Sauron daily. Just as Saruman lost his hope, the Steward of Gondor lost his. He became mad with despair, unable to even properly lead the people to defend the city.

Even Frodo, at one point began to lose sight of the goal. He declared to Sam that he could no longer go on. Sam responded:

“I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something... That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.”

It was the focus of the characters that influenced their behaviours and their successes or failures. Focus and balance in what they focused on also played a role. Although it did not get displayed particularly prominently in the films, the books make it very clear how important celebrations and laughter were to giving the Hobbits the strength to continue their journey.

1.       Tom Bombadil and Goldberry encouraged the Hobbits early in their adventure – feasting and giving them a few evenings of merriment and laughter

2.       In the Inn of the Prancing Pony, the Hobbits (mostly the younger two) celebrated in the tavern

3.       In the valley of the elves, the Hobbits rested, feasted and had times to enjoy life

4.       Before entering the mines of Moria, the whole party of 9 (the fellowship of the ring) had some laughter and good times during their encampments

5.       On and on throughout the story, at various times, the characters took time to find some enjoyment in life regardless of the dangers and evil around them

For those of us working in the realm of Indigenous economic development, our challenges are no less daunting. Indigenous peoples are the most impoverished in Canada, kept at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder by the racist apartheid Indian Act. We face the highest suicide rates, drug and alcohol abuse, spirits broken from residential schools and Canadian cultural genocide policies, highest school drop out rates, lowest funding levels for child welfare, education, health, remote communities with food costing as much as 10 times what Canadians pay for, communities without running water, without heat, housing chronically underfunded resulting in overcrowding and mould, diabetes, the lowest unemployment, etc.

Our communities also face funding cuts, and threats from the Government of Canada (ie. Federal response to Attawapiskat state of emergency was to cut funding and place them under third party management in an arrangement that would force the community to pay $1,300 to a white consultant appointed by PM Harper). Our communities face energy and resource companies encroaching on lands to profit from natural resources – often without including our communities or only giving us a pittance for compensation then leaving our communities with environmental disasters and chronic health problems.

Our communities face unilateral decisions by the Conservative Government of Canada that erode rights and safeguards of community lands and resources. Programs, organizations, communities are all facing continual funding cuts under the current government, all while emergency states and third world conditions are ignored.

The challenges before us are great. However, we can learn something from the characters I described above.

1.       We must fix in our minds a vision of what success looks like. What are we trying to achieve in our communities?

2.       We must hang on to that vision and find people who will support and encourage us – surround ourselves with those people.

3.       While it is important to be aware of the challenges before us and the tactics of the “Saurons” we face, we must not lose ourselves, our hope, and our vision, by meditating too deeply on them.

a.       Thinking of the entirety of the challenge can be discouraging and cause us to lose focus. Be aware of the overall challenge, but begin to determine the immediate legs of the journey before you.

b.      What can you tangibly do today, to bring you one step closer to the vision you hold onto?

4.       We need to ensure we balance ourselves between focusing on the challenges and on finding enjoyment where we can in this life.

5.       We need to remember the words of Samwise: “there's some good in this world... and it's worth fighting for.”

So as we proceed to apply our skills and minds and hands to raising up Indigenous communities, we need to fix a vision of what the end goal is. The smile of a healthy child, a well-maintained home, a family playing and spending quality time together, a community cleaned up of debris and litter, community events filled with laughter and joy, a beaming graduate holding their diploma, a smiling tradesperson holding their Red Seal certificate, etc.

I leave you with a real life example of someone who has exemplified much of these thoughts: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/this-teacher-is-on-a-mission-to-educate-first-nations/article2289480/

Michelle Durant-Dudley, a teacher who kept a vision of success fixed in her mind. Even endured hardships, personal sacrifice, and physical assault could not deter her from her focus and her hope and vision.

Let us resolve this year to have the same dedication to a future vision full of hope.

Resolutions and measurements

It’s a new year. With a new year comes the inevitable focus on resolutions and goals and measurements. Most resolutions focus on fitness and the losing (or gaining) of a few pounds. Our resolutions don’t have to be only personal ones, however. We can apply the same principle to our economic or community development goals.

What do you wish to accomplish this year in your community? More importantly, how will you measure your community’s economic waist line? There are a number of tools available to assist you in this:

-          Community Information Database

-          MyPeg (Specific for Winnipeg, but may offer a great example for other cities and communities)

-          Community Economic Development Capacity Index. Sorry I do not have a link for it, you will have to email me to request a copy. You can either subscribe to my blog through email (see the text box on the right). Or you can leave a comment with your email address. Since I moderate comments, I will not be post any comment with your email since I do not wish to expose your email address to potential spammers.

Using tools like these, you can establish a baseline and measure your progress as you go through the year.

Happy resolution making!

Solution Based Pursuits

I was recently reflecting on the challenges in the world today and how to go about making positive change. The Attawapiskat issue has been big on my mind, for a whole host of reasons. It got me thinking to the broader concepts of change, challenge, focus, and economic development.

For anyone involved in economic development, it will not be much of a surprise to state that much of economic development is based on problem solving. Unlike business development, which takes advantage of opportunities a specific economic environment provides, economic development is the process by which we work to create an environment of opportunities.

What greater example of the challenges we face as economic developers than to consider a community such as Attawapiskat. To introduce you to the community and issue here are some points:

·         Located in Northern Ontario, on the shores of Hudson’s Bay, Attawapiskat is a fly-in only community

·         Food, construction materials and goods must be transported via winter road (of which the window of use is shortening due to global warming) or air at high costs

·         There are about 2,000 residents

·         There are limited employment opportunities and very few businesses and employers (mostly public agencies and Band administration)

·         Like all First Nations, Canada discriminates with its funding levels and provides as much as 50% less funding for First Nations people on basic services such as, water and sewage infrastructure, education, child welfare, health care, and housing to name a few.

·         Canada intentionally excluded the people of Attawapiskat from obtaining any form of compensation for De Beers diamond mine operating in their traditional territory. The result is that De Beers is making billions in profits, while the people of Attawapiskat live in the depths of poverty equalled only by the most impoverished regions of Africa.

·         For a community of 2,000 people, there are only 300 homes, 5 large tents, 17 sheds without heating, electricity or running water.

Here is a timeline that was compiled in Wikipedia, of the most severe issues:

·         1979 30,000 gallons of diesel leaked from underground pipes was spilled underneath the J.R. Nagokee School (houses grades 1-8) recently built (1976). It was the largest spill in Northern Ontario. ("Education is a Right: Fighting for Attawapiskat". http://www.attawapiskat-school.com/Information.html. Retrieved December 3, 2011.)

·         May 11, 2001 J.R. Nagokee School Elementary was closed because of health problems related to 1979 diesel spill. Since then the elementary school students are in portables. (Linda Goyette (December 10, 2010). "Attawapiskat: The State of First Nations Education in Canada". Canadian Geographic. http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/dec10/attawapiskat4.asp. Retrieved December 3, 2011)

·         2000 Minister Robert Nault agreed in 2000 to begin plans for a new school. Two successive INAC ministers, Andy Scott and Jim Prentice also promised a new school for Attawapiskat. You can read the full chronology of seven years of negotiations on the departmental website. On April 1, 2008, the new minister, Chuck Strahl, informed the Attawapiskat First Nation Education Authority AFNEA that Ottawa would not finance the new school after all.

·         2004-12-08. During his 2004 mission in Canada, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, UNESC Special Rapporteur, observed first-hand the substandard conditions of on-reserve housing which included deteriorated units, lack of heating and insulation, leakage of pipes and toxic mould. (UNESC. 2004-12-08. "Human rights and indigenous issues: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, Rodolfo Stavenhagen: Mission to Canada.")

·         December 2007 The new Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl cancelled the plans for a new school claiming there were other communities who took priority and that there were no health and safety concerns in Attawapiskat.

·         May 2008 – Hundreds of people are evacuated from the community after a state of emergency is declared. The threat stems from the possibility of ice jams in the Attawapiskat River and subsequent flooding. ("More evacuations expected in northern Ontario due to flood fears". Canwest News Service. MAY 9, 2008. http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=8ee4b129-90d3-44b7-b876-1903d4aa6078. Retrieved December 3, 2011.)

·         2007-11-01 UNHCHR Special Rapporteur, Mr. Miloon Kothari, noted that overcrowded and inadequate housing conditions, as well as difficulties to access basic services, including water and sanitation, are major problems for Aboriginal peoples. He called for changes in federal and provincial government, legislations, policies and budgetary allocation for Aboriginal people (UNHCHR. 2007-11-01. "United Nations Expert on Adequate Housing Calls for Immediate Attention to Tackle National Housing Crisis in Canada." Geneva.)

·         2009 Members of the Attawapiskat First Nation blocked a winter road block near the DeBeers Victor Mine to protest the fact that the Attawapiskat First Nation live in such impoverished conditions alongside this billion dollar project.

·         July 11, 2009 A massive sewage flood dumps waste into eight buildings, which house 90 people. De Beers donated and retrofitted two construction accommodation trailers intended as a short term stop-gap measure, until the homes could be remediated or replaced. They continue to house 90 people who share the four stoves and six washrooms. (Ryan Lux (November 10, 2011). "Hundreds homeless in Attawapiskat MP says, ‘people will die if nothing is done’". Edmonton: The Daily Press. http://www.thedailypress.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3363844. Retrieved December 3, 2011 AND Rebecca Lindell (November 29, 2011). "Putting Attawapiskat on the map". Edmonton: Global News. http://www.globaltvedmonton.com/timeline/6442531868/story.html. Retrieved December 3, 2011)

·         August 21, 2009 Community members traveled to Toronto to confront De Beers Canada about the growing prosperity of the company and the growing poverty in the community.

·         October 14, 2009 – Chief Theresa Hall raises concerns about the federal government’s lack of response to the housing crisis in Attawapiskat caused by the sewage back-up. The government claimed it had committed $700,000 to repair homes.

·         October 28, 2011 – Attawapiskat First Nations leadership calls a state of emergency for the third time in three years. Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan claimed that officials in his department were unaware of Attawapiskat's housing problems until Oct. 28, despite having visited the community many times this year. (CBC (December 1, 2011). "Attawapiskat crisis sparks political blame game". http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/story/2011/12/01/attawapiskat-thursday.html. Retrieved 2011-12-03)

·         2011 December 1 The Canadian Red Cross mobilized to help meet immediate needs in the community of Attawapiskat. The Red Cross continues to work closely with public authorities and the community to identify and address urgent, short-term needs. At the request of the community the Red Cross will also take on a donation management role to support these needs as identified. ("Canadian Red Cross to support immediate needs in Attawapiskat". Toronto. November 26, 2011. http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=41678&tid=001. Retrieved December 4, 2011)

·         CBC journalist Adrienne Arsenault visited Attawapiskat to assess the situation on December 2, 2011.  Alarmed at Attawapiskat's housing problems, she dismissed claims by Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan that on an emergency basis there was adequate clean, dry shelter with running water and electricity available in the community, citing public buildings such as the healing centre and sportsplex. Adrienne Arsenault was particularly concerned about the most-at-risk groups, which include elderly people and children: the healing centre building is five kilometres out of town and has neither running water nor phone lines. (CBC (December 3, 2011). "Adrienne Arsenault Reporter's Notebook". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adKggXHA1uM. Retrieved 2011-12-03)

Much can be said about what is NOT being done or about Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s callous response to the emergency situation whereby he ordered the community into third party management instead of sending any aid at all. For any of you who are familiar with what third party management is, you will know that it is a process to make white financiers rich off the misery of First Nations peoples. With rare exceptions (I know of a few accounting firms that actually do have ethics), they do not build community capacity to eventually get out of third party management – doing so would mean they no longer get a lifelong cushy contract at $1,300 per day or more of community money that could be going toward programs of the basic necessities.

However, this brings me to my main point. The tendency of humans is to spot the injustice (which is a good thing to be aware of), but then get caught into a shoving match in an effort to deal with the injustice. The shoving and pressure, is clearly important, but it cannot be the only action taken. We must still pursue what solutions, however small they may seem, that we can.

Let us assume that the Canadian Government will never help this community and that they will continue to intentionally ignore the discriminatory funding deficits. How can we, as economic development professionals, find tangible solutions for the many challenges that this community (or any other similar to it) faces?

In my last post (http://indigenouspeopleintheeconomy.blogspot.com/2011/12/motivation.html), I discussed the importance of motivation to economic activity and I defined economic activity very broadly – including the process of acquiring food to eat. Another blog post I had recently read (http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/how-to-motivate-yourself/) discussed the importance of a tangible focus in the development of motivation. If I am hungry, rather than focus on the pain of hunger, I should focus on forming a plan on acquiring food to meet this need. That, then, becomes my motivation and offers me clear concrete direction.

So, on the ground level, we have motivation stemming from our needs and on the top level, we have the ultimate goal of a thriving sustainable community where people’s needs are met and they have opportunities to reach for their full potential. Before I begin to talk about solutions I will explain what this has to do with economic development and then I will build from the ground up the discussion of motivation from the very basic needs to the highest level of need.

Economic Development and Solution Based Focus

As I had mentioned before, economic development is essentially problem solving and creating an economic environment that encourages entrepreneurship and business development. When viewed in this light, a community such as Attawapiskat is the ideal community for economic developers to consider. If our theories and experiences cannot help communities like Attawapiskat develop, then they are meaningless and only offering an illusion of success in cities or communities that already have economic capacity built. Just as we would not praise an architect for drawing a building that was already constructed, why would we praise an economic developer for developing an economy that is already developed?

This is the reason a discussion such as this is critical to economic development. The creative energies of the economic development profession need to be directed in the right place.

Motivation: From Basic to High Level

By now, most people will have heard about Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. Fulfillment of these needs are often our primary motivators. Maslow laid out this hierarchy as follows:

·         Physiological needs: breathing, water, food, clothing, shelter

·         Safety needs: security of health, body, family, employment, resources

·         Belonging needs: friendship, family, belonging to a larger group, sexual intimacy

·         Esteem needs: self-esteem, achievement, respect of self and others

·         Need to know & understand

·         Aesthetic needs

·         Self-actualization: the drive to meet your own potential

While there are critics of this perspective, I believe they can still be valid for discussion. I do not believe they are strictly a pyramid where one must be fulfilled before the next. I also believe that this can be applied to individuals, as well as communities. I might map it to communities as follows:

·         Basic needs

·         Community safety

·         Sense of community/engagement

·         Community pride/marketing

o   Sense of pride in the community

o   Knowledge of past, present and visioning for the future

o   Community clean-up and beautification

·         Community-actualization

In Attawapiskat, they struggle to deal with the basic needs (housing, access to water, food) and community safety (threat of funding cuts from Government of Canada, threat of third party management, personal safety of community members). Often the discussion revolves around comments, such as:

·         “Why don’t they just get a job?”

·         “Why can’t they just fix up their own houses?” or “Why can’t they build better shelters?”

·         “Why don’t we just privatize their land and allow the people to get mortgages?”

·         “Why don’t they start some businesses?”

What these questions, and others like them, fail to address is the foundational influence of motivation and misplaced energies. There are no jobs in the community. There is no Rona’s or Home Hardware to purchase housing materials, even if the people had the money to do so. There are no roads to transport materials in. Mortgages for the people would be useless since they have not the income to support mortgages – it would only result in wholesale giving lands and territories into direct possession of the banking industry.

The last question may have some of the answer, but not in the traditional sense. If they community created social enterprises or co-ops that could respond to the needs they have, they may be able to venture down the road to greater sustainability. Certainly, this could not happen without some sort of an initial investment (perhaps government funding or private sector donations), but here are some potential ideas:

·         Start a sizable greenhouse to begin growing food to supply to the community – it can either be sold in a store run by the community. (Not only would an investment of funds be necessary to build the greenhouses, but training/mentorship in running greenhouses)

·         Request that universities send engineering students to create/innovate some housing/shelter concepts that could be implemented using the resources around the community

·         Request that the military consider the community for practical field exercises

·         Communicate with companies like GE regarding water filtration machines – perhaps a donation or discount price or government support at full price

·         Consult the Elders on the viability of setting up a rabbit farm or perhaps a sheep or alpaca herd

·         Consult with traditional medicine men and women about reintroducing this health option, which has the potential of using natural medicines of the traditional territory

·         Consider establishing a construction company as a joint venture with an experience company and a clear exit strategy to take advantage of housing funds that do come into the community. This builds capacity and opens the potential of the community making use of the resources around them to build further houses (perhaps using Frontier Foundation’s program of establishing local sawmills). This construction company could also take on the work to build the new school (if Canada ever offers the funds).

·         Start a grassroots program where community members gather regularly to clean up around the community as a team, or to conduct basic repairs. Already, being as a group makes things more fun, but also offer a free meal/feast and perhaps some entertainment while people are working through the community. The concept here is that no person should have nothing to do.

There are other ideas that can be thought of, but these are merely examples. When we begin to take our energies and focus them on something more tangible, like a specific solution, we make, what we once though unattainable, attainable. Focusing these solutions to meet our needs today, we fuel them with the energy of the proper motivation and, in the process, build the necessary capacity to rise to the next level.

Will there be other challenges? Absolutely, but the confidence gained in rising past one will encourage us to move beyond the next.

Knowing the problems and challenges is one thing, but if we do not start dreaming up the solutions we enable and perpetuate the problems.

So, as economic developers, let us work with the communities that truly need assistance; walk in with both ears open to find out what their needs are and how they would like us to help; put on our thinking caps and build an economic environment in the community that matches their values, their needs, and their hopes and dreams for the future.

Community Economic Development tools

What is community economic development? Many people ask the question, but few receive a clear answer. Some receive confusing answers while others do not wait for an answer. Still others, simply write it off as "left wing" or "socialist" or "communist."

Really, in simple terms, community economic development (CED) is economic development +. It is economic development, but not just that. It is much more than that. CED encompasses all aspects of a community, just as in reality, our lives do as well.

That being said, I find it somewhat irritating when people talk about CED in terms of "business development" and "entrepreneurship" only. Our focus on infinite profit and selfish individualism are not particularly conducive to developing productive, safe, happy communities. I will not repeat the research on CED, but I will encourage you to read this link, which has a pretty good description:

http://www.manitobaresearchallianceced.ca/Documents/51-CED_as_mainstream_alternative.pdf

Interesting to note is that this paper was written on the subject of the merit and value of CED as a mainstream alternative to the current neo-classical system of capitalism BEFORE the global financial meltdown was caused by the same neo-classical Wall Street elite who have since profited from it.

Here is another link that explains CED: http://www.manitobaresearchallianceced.ca/Documents/Thematic_Summaries/CEDandtheNewEconomyNorthern-WEB.pdf

However, I want to focus on the fact that many communities and people interested in CED often miss out on some valuable resources available to them. I will list a few of them here:

• http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/epb/sid/cia/comm_deve/cdhbooke.pdf
• CED Path-finder: http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/ri/ced/pdf/cedpathtoc.pdf
• List of Data sources: http://www.reddi.gov.on.ca/data.htm
• Free CED Capacity tool: http://www.communitydevelopment.uiuc.edu/surveys/index.html

Currently I am working on a tool that I hope that be able to distribute in the next few months. Initially it is only focused on MB, but it may well growth from there.

Ken