Governance Review 2011

FHQTC Governance Review 2011

The File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council in March 2011 initiated an assessment of its current governance  arrangements against fifteen standards set out by four of the country’s leading authorities on good governance practice, including two on good First Nations governance. A total of one hundred and eight First Nations shareholders and stakeholders within the FHQ region participated in several assessment sessions which were held between April and June 2011. The results and a set of recommendations were then reported in a document entitled File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council Governance Review, June 30, 2011.

The assessment found that Tribal Council currently meets a fully acceptable threshold required for a corporate body to fulfill its governance responsibilities and mandate, but that Tribal Council must improve its governance arrangements over time if it is to become a leader among Canada’s First Nations organizations in terms of legitimacy, representativeness and skillfulness.

In order to improve the Tribal Council’s governance arrangement, the Report recommended that:

  1. The Chiefs immediately identify their priority needs relative to technical support and advisory services (Band Government, Financial Management, Economic Development, Community Planning, and Technical Services) and consequently that FHQTC immediately re-profile its current operations to meet these needs;
  2. FHQTC immediately re-profile its current operations in order to put a policy-watch capability and policy formulation capacity as well as a formal policy-making process in place;
  3. A Select Committee be struck to study and make recommendations to the Chiefs on: FHQTC’s belief, vision and mission statements; FHQTC’s meeting agenda and procedures; a cultural constitution; and a complaints policy;
  4. A Task team be established to review FHQTC’s current operational policies and develop a standard operating procedures manual to guide external policy analyses;
  5. FHQTC hire a person full-time to formulate, develop and maintain a communications strategy of primary benefit to its shareholders and stakeholders;
  6. FHQTC implement an integrated (strategic, business, operational, finance and human resources) planning process;
  7. Membership criteria for FHQTC committees and entity boards be revised so as to allow for the appointment of any suitable candidate, subject to the approval of the Chiefs; and
  8. FHQTC diversify its funding sources so as not to rely too heavily on the present funding agencies.

Following the release of the report in July at Onion Lake as well as discussion of the report at subsequent Agency Chiefs meetings, each Agency nominated one person from their area to the proposed Select Committee. The File Hills Agency nominated Chief Marie-Anne Daywalker-Pelletier; the Qu’Appelle Agency, Chief Todd Cappo. These two nominees then invited Elder Velma Goodfeather from Qu’Appelle Agency and Senator Aubrey Goforth from File Hills Agency to join them on the Committee.

At around the same time, FHQTC Executive Director Brad Johnson nominated to the proposed Technical Task Team: Gail Boehme, Dean Bigknife, Stephanie Montgrand, Erica Beaudin, and himself, Brad Johnson as Chair.At their Chiefs Forum held October 13, the FHQ Chiefs: accepted the Governance Review Report; adopted its recommendations; confirmed the nominees to both the Select Committee and the Task Team; and gave their mandate to the Committee and Task Team to formulate a series of plans for the implementation of each of the recommendations.

Since then, the Select Committee has begun work on revising the FHQTC Election Act; prioritizing the needs of each of the eleven First Nations relative to FHQTC-delivered technical support and advisory services; developing a plan for the re-profiling of FHQTC’s current operations; and revising the FHQTC’s belief, vision and mission statements.

At the same time the Task Team also began work on revising the FHQTC Administrative and Financial Policy and the FHQTC Personnel (Human Resources) Policy.

It is expected that the work of both the Select Committee and the Task Team on the matters cited will be completed by early February, at which time they will report to the Chiefs Forum and seek their approval for the implementation of the series of plans formulated through the work of the committees.