1:00pm to 2:30pm Central Time

Free Webinar

Following several decades of losing population, more than 80 communities in Manitoba fell below the minimum requirement of 1000 people to maintain their municipality status. In 2012, the Provincial government responded by an initiative of modernizing rural municipalities, with particular interest to smaller municipalities in the southwest. The amalgamation initiative was informed by applied research that examined functional economic regions as possible local boundaries. Based on where residents live and work, new rural regional municipal amalgamations were proposed. These findings along with provincial activities and resources shaped the process, while requiring local decisions, which resulted in 47 municipal amalgamations. This presentation will provide details related to the functional economic regions and overview the amalgamation chronology.

Discussions will include how you might characterize this initiative, including for example, was this initiative a marriage of top-down and bottom-up or was it an example of a negotiated approach where two levels of government played their own roles or was it simply an imposition on local autonomy?

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Presenting is Dr. Bill Ashton; the Director of Brandon University's Rural Development Institute (RDI). Bill continues to advance research and discourse on public policy, with particular interest in policy development processes.  His career as a practitioner and researcher has taken him across Canada and elsewhere, and he is currently active with topics of immigration, welcoming communities, and economic development in rural, northern, and remote areas.  Community based projects that contribute locally and provincially to economic, social and environmental development are important touchstones in Bill’s knowledge and experience.  He strives to work toward opportunities and develop partnerships that will make a difference within many organizations at different geographic scales and contribute to sustainability.

11:55am to 1:00pm Eastern Time

So many great minds working in community development are talking about the need to change, the urgency to transform services and operations in ways that not only fit our chaotic environment but influence its future as well. We tend to be rather good at seeing what should change and why, however, life becomes much more difficult when trying to figure out the how.

Upside Down Thinking is both a mindset and a tool that we can use to challenge the things that are so true for us that we don’t even question them anymore. It is a cognitive-creative methodology and is about more than crafting inquiry; it goes further to pose new realities or potential realities that run contrary to how we think and how we see our own identities within the context of our work.

Join Tamarack Thought Leaders Mark Holmgren and Elayne Greeley on January 22nd as they take a closer look at how what we create can stop us from creating, how what we think is good sometimes actually has negative impacts, and how we can become more innovative in our work by using purposefully ambitious thinking.

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Speakers

Mark Holmgren’s consulting practice has delivered social housing, strategic plans, new programs and services, innovations, evaluations, and research and analysis for a wide variety of organizations and departments including governments, human service agencies, funders, arts and culture groups, health organizations, educational institutions, and faith communities.

In early 2014, Mark was recognized by Tamarack Institute as one its national thought leaders and appointed to the Mayor of Edmonton’s Task Force on Eliminating Poverty.

Currently he is the CEO of Bissell Centre, a position he has held since the spring of 2011.

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Possibility aficionado, big picture thinker, collaborative team player, unabashed optimist and lover of natural history, that's Elayne Greeley in a nut shell along with all that ​i​s exciting and messy. By day Elayne has the privilege of working with a grand group of career practitioners and their ​community agencies in a partnership called CCEPP in St. John's, Newfoundland (www.ccepp.ca). She arrived at this work from the cultural sector and inserts as much creativity as she is allowed to by hosting groups differently and driving curiosity and learning within ​the sector.

Public policy is a key focus for CCEDNet.  Since our first National Policy Forum in 2001, we have actively engaged our members in identifying the most strategic policy changes that would create a more enabling environment for CED and contribute to stronger, more inclusive communities.

In anticipation of the 2015 federal election, CCEDNet's Policy Council has updated our policy priorities and we sought your input. 

This session was an opportunity for CCEDNet members and others to provide feedback on the proposed new priorities, and consider strategies for getting CED into party platforms for the election in 2015.

Download the Draft National Policy Priorities

PRESENTERS

Diana Jedig, Ontario Association of Community Futures Development Corporations (OACFDC)

Diana is CCEDNet Board Chair and represents CCEDNet on the People-Centred Economy Group, a national coalition of leading groups in the social economy, CED and impact investing fields.  She has been Executive Director of the OACFDC since 1994, she volunteers on the Board of the Community Futures Network of Canada and is a founding member of The Ontario Rural Council (now the Rural Ontario Institute)

David LePage, Accelerating Social Impact CCC

David is a member (and past Chair) of CCEDNet's Policy Council.  He is a Principal with Accelerating Social Impact CCC, Ltd. (ASI), one of Canada’s first incorporated social purpose hybrid corporations. Through ASI David provides direct support and strategic advice to blended value businesses, social enterprises and social finance developments. He is involved in multiple public policy initiatives and research projects to support the social enterprise ecosystem across Canada. ASI is a partner in launching and building the Buy Social Canada campaign.  He is the former Team Manager of Enterprising Non-Profits, where he led the effort to expand the enp social enterprise development and training model across Canada. He initiated Canada’s first Social Purchasing Portal in 2003.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• Draft National Policy Priorities for 2015
• Previous CCEDNet Policy Priorities
• National Summit on a People-Centred Economy (2010)
• CCEDNet's 2014 federal pre-budget brief
• More policy resources from our website toolbox