12pm Central Daylight Time

With baby boomers retiring, young people moving to urban centres, and many local administrations and businesses confronting uncertainty, small towns face significant changes. Relying on government and big business to provide services and investment is increasingly difficult, and the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated many of these challenges. But it has also renewed appreciation for locally owned businesses. Together, this means small towns have a unique opportunity to change their approach to service delivery, business retention, and investment attraction. Drawing on examples from western Canada, this presentation offers insight into small towns that have adopted a new, co-operative approach to accessing and attracting the services they need.

Register for Small Towns Need a New Approach

PRESENTER

Kyle White is the Governance and Education Lead with Co-operatives First. His work focuses on developing and delivering educational and development services for Co-operatives First. Originally from Newfoundland and Labrador, Kyle has worked his way across Canada focusing on community economic development in rural and Indigenous communities. With degrees in Geography and Public Policy, Kyle’s educational background has focused on community development, governance, and organizational policy. Aside from his work with Co-operatives First, Kyle is an active volunteer with several Saskatoon-based non-profits and serves on a variety of boards.

2pm Central Daylight Time

Idle No More's One House Many Nations (OHMN) initiative works to address the dire housing situation on First Nations and other Indigenous communities. This initiative has brought much -needed attention and awareness to the housing crisis and homelessness that affects Canadians and Indigenous peoples, while making a difference by building housing and supports for land defense, including the Muskrat Hut. The Muskrat Hut is an off-grid (solar-powered and wood stove heated) mobile centre with an incinerator toilet (zero waste), water catchment/storage system, shower /change room, and wash up sinks to support living on the land. The Muskrat Hut project was a finalist in the Team category in the Science, Technology, Innovation and Collaboration Award in 2019.

Most recently, One House Many Nations' Making the Shift research is working with youth in four First Nations (Opaskwayak, Big River, Yellowknife, Brokenhead) to build four homes on-reserve with and for the homelessness in these communities. Dr Wilson is collaborating with the Mino Bimaadiziwin Partnership to fund Treetudents and two Homebuildersfour architecture students, two Homebuilder students and three professors who assisted in building the Muskrat Hut in Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN) and are now currently helping design homes with homeless people in the four reserve communities.

Register for One House Many Nations: Policy, Practice, & Practicalities

PRESENTER

Dr. Alex Wilson, Opaskwayak Cree Nation, is a professor with the Department of Educational Foundations and the Academic Director of the Aboriginal Education Research Centre at the University of Saskatchewan. Her teaching and research focuses on Indigenous land-based education, Queering education and land protection through sustainable housing.

Complex challenges like unemployment, poverty, the decline of economic activity and subsequent reduction of social services in urban and rural communities, reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, systemic racism, and climate change require comprehensive responses.  The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare many of the weaknesses in our social and economic systems, exacerbating some of these challenges and drawing attention to others as we, collectively, find a way forward that results in a more sustainable, inclusive, and equitable future for all.  

Across Canada and around the world, community economic development (CED) initiatives already foster inclusive economic revitalization, access to capital for business development, local ownership of resources, job creation, poverty reduction, and environmental stewardship.  At a larger scale, CED can provide the foundation for COVID-19 recovery that allows us to “build back better”.

What, specifically, do we want to see happen right now?  What are the key policy changes that will facilitate the implementation of CED solutions to communities’ challenges?

On November 19 we talked about our current policy priorities, how they can accelerate economic recovery in a COVID and post-COVID world, and how you can get involved!  

Guest Speakers:

• Raissa Marks, Government Relations Director & Mike Toye, Executive Director, Canadian Community Economic Development Network
• Hazel Corcoran, Executive Director, Canadian Worker Co-op Federation
• Kelly Dowdell, Policy & Research Specialist, Momentum
• Teshini Harrison, Policy Analyst, Ontario Nonprofit Network
• Wendy Keats, Executive Director, Co-operative Enterprise Council of New Brunswick
• David Lepage, Managing Partner, Buy Social Canada

Resources:

• PowerPoint Presentation

The Indigenomics Institute invites Indigenous leaders, businesses and organizations, government, educational institutions, private industry and corporations to Designing our Economies | Indigenomics by Design Virtual Forum. This forum, on Monday November 30th, 2020 will focus on the path towards Indigenous economic freedom, and will be an opportunity to come together to advance the vision of an annual national $100 Billion Dollar Indigenous economy. 

Indigenomics is modern constructive economic design. This forum will focus on Indigenous economic design as fundamental to the success of the emerging national annual $100 billion dollar Indigenous economy. Building our collective economic response to now is essential to build upon a strong foundation of resilience that will be felt for generations. 

The 2020 Indigenomics '10 to Watch' List will be announced. The Institute publishes this annual list of businesses and organizations who demonstrate excellence, innovation, leadership and committed action towards the growth of the Indigenous economy.​

Register for Designing our Economies: Indigenomics by Dedsign

About the Indigenomics Institute

The Indigenomics Institute is an Indigenous economic advisory for public governments, Indigenous communities and the private sector. The Indigenomics Institute focuses on four core areas in overcoming Indigenous economic barriers and addressing challenges:

DIALOGUE PLATFORM FOR INDIGENOUS ECONOMIC SOLUTIONS 
ECONOMIC POLICY/ RESEARCH/ANALYSIS / PLANNING 
EDUCATION/ TRAINING
PARTNERSHIP DEVELOPMENT 

Indigenomics honors the powerful thinking of Indigenous wisdom of local economy, relationships and human values. Indigenomics is about increasing the role and visibility of Indigenous peoples in the new economy. It is about understanding indigenous ways of being and worldview. Indigenomics draws on ancient principles that have supported indigenous economies for thousands of years, and works to implement them as modern practices.

Indigenomics welcomes you to an Indigenous worldview. It brings to the forefront human values and practice. It invites dialogue, and thought provoking insight into possibility of the Indigenous relationship both in Canada and beyond. It explores the pathway of the threshold of the indigenous relationship and modern economies.