First Nations Infrastructure Institute
This podcast is for First Nations leadership planning critical infrastructure projects for community and economic development. Recorded live at the First Nations 'Leading the Way 5' conference in Treaty 1 Territory – Winnipeg, Manitoba, October 4-6, 2022. Host: Richard Perry
First Nations Infrastructure Institute
Jason Calla, FNII Technical Lead
How can I explore working with the First Nations Infrastructure Institute? Do we need a Band Council Resolution? Are there size or financial limits to projects? Where can I find more information on new Board openings at FNII?
Those and other topics were covered in this conversation between Jason Calla, FNII Technical Lead and podcast host Richard Perry.
It was recorded shortly after the very successful Leading the Way 7 conference in Edmonton in late November 2024.
LINKS:
Jason Calla e-mail: jcalla@fnii.ca
Website e-mail: info@fnii.ca
Phone: Toll-free: +1 855-682-3682
First Nations Infrastructure Institute
Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation
Leadership openings:
FNII - Chairperson: https://lnkd.in/g4ZiuSZJ
FNII - Directors: https://lnkd.in/gEc_fHzU
Additional information on the opportunities and how to apply can be accessed on the Government of Canada Governor in Council Appointments website: https://lnkd.in/g54EKsV
But what they do know is they need water, they need wastewater, they need roads, they need power, they need telecommunications to service all of those proposed uses.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the only podcast in Canada on First Nations infrastructure. Our Richard Perry In this episode, Jason Cala , Finney's technical lead covers important territory for nations, exploring new infrastructure. How can you work with Finney ? What are some options? Is there a maximum or minimum sized project you can collaborate on? Do you need a B, CR to work together? We started, though, with his thoughts on the leading the way seven conference in Edmonton.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I find it always to be an energizing conference, Richard. I , I know, I think this is the seventh year that it's been held. And , um, I was , uh, impressed at the turnout. Like I, I, I was sort of questioning , um, how many people might be able to show up, because I know it's a little bit later in the year, and of course, winter conditions can set in, but gosh, there was probably like 700 people there, I think. Um, and , uh, the part that I, I really enjoy is hearing from nations about the things they have planned for their communities.
Speaker 2:Something I really enjoyed too was I think on the last day they had , uh, a youth panel and to hear what some of them were saying about how they have been inspired by the FMA institutions and what they're discussing every year. That was pretty impressive.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm a big fan of that. Um, I think that's a recent addition to the conference where there's been a youth delegation and also elders. I know I actually had a chance the day before the conference to , uh, to address the , the youth and elders came together and, and yeah, amazing to hear , um, from the youth about the plans they have for the future and the questions, right, of how do they fit in and what can they do to support and where are the opportunities for them to learn about things. So I think it's a real good, good connection there.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You can see some future leaders in the making there, for sure.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Yeah .
Speaker 2:Uh , one other thing I noticed was that your trade booth, the list of email signatures seems to be growing. Uh, you're generating lots of buzz, and I'm curious how you deal as a small organization, how do you deal with the increasing number of contacts out there who want to get in touch with Finney and hear from you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had a lot of traffic through the booth there. It was wonderful to get a chance to chat to people. I know we had our, our team there who was , uh, uh, sort of spelling each other off, but , uh, my , uh, my hands are up. And thanks to all of our, our staff that was helping demand the boost, they , um, they really , uh, did a great job. And yeah, so it's interesting, some communities , um, you know, when you're talking about infrastructure, sometimes it takes a , a few conversations to get going. So , um, some people are brand new, like, what is Finney ? What is it about, what do , what services do you offer? Some people have heard about finna a little bit in the past, and they're coming by and saying, Hey, I heard about you already. You know, we have a project we wanna talk to you about. And then some community , uh, members we are actually already working with, and we have a chance to say, Hey , uh, great to see you here. You know, you get a chance to sort of outside of a meeting situation, just sort of connect and , and chat. So I think different phases of, of people, some people learning, some people starting to think more detailed about how Finney can support them, and then some we're working with. So, great, great conversations.
Speaker 2:Can you walk me through the process? Uh, if somebody calls you from Community X and says, I'd like to learn more, would they be able to speak with you directly or does somebody else on the team chat them up?
Speaker 1:They certainly can reach out to me directly. My email address is J ka jca a@finny.ca . There's also, of course, the website, www.fi.ca, where you can go and there's a , a a , an email link , uh, info@finny.ca that you can send a , an email through. We have a team of people responding to that, so that's probably the easiest way. I know what's tended to happen, Richard, with , um, with our conversations is we've been, as you know, out , uh, engaging with different , um, groups across the country, whether it's through conferences, different opportunities , uh, um, there's of course the leading the way, but there's a number of other conferences that we've been attending, one with our couple this year with the First Nations National Building Officers Association. And I know in January we're going to connect with some nations who are thinking about health transformation in Ontario. And , and typically what happens, we'll do an introductory presentation, and then we'll get a chance to chat to people there a little bit and say, you know, you've heard a little bit about what Finney's about. Are there some projects you have in mind , um, that you think might be worth talking about? Where, where we could collaborate and support advancing a project? And then that sometimes progresses, we'll have a virtual session, maybe, you know, chat . Oftentimes I feel like, Richard, we have an easy job at Finney compared to, for example, the financial management board or the tax commission. Those topics, financial management and taxation can be quite abstract, although we know they're super important for infrastructure. But when we talk about infrastructure and ask if people have projects, oftentimes they have a list, you know, a a that's a long list of projects they have in mind. And so typically we'll have a bit of a discussion about some of the projects that might, might be , um, you know, ones that we could collaborate on. And then if that conversation progresses a little bit further, sometimes, you know, there'll be an, an individual or maybe several could be a counselor, it could be an administrative member. They might say, Hey, I , I think we got something here, but you know what, before we get started working on something, I need you to come and talk to council , or I need you to come and talk to our management group. We need to get more people on site . Infrastructures often, you know, I would say affects a number of different administrative and political people within a nation or an indigenous organization, whether it's finance or public works, or a pro , you know, property tax, childhood family services, of course, council , there's, there's oftentimes a number of people. There's really helpful to get on side and talk about. So, so we'll come and, you know, sometimes come out to the nation, oftentimes we do and do a presentation in person, gives us a chance to talk to council , talk to leadership, talk about what Finney is, and then, you know, it's a decision that the nation's gonna make. Is this something we wanna embark on this path of, of course, advancing the projects, but also , um, you know, working with finna and so that then we'll sort of get more detailed in the scope of the project. So that's typ it sounds, maybe that's maybe a bit long-winded. Sorry for the long-winded answer. But, you know, it starts with the conversation really. And then usually a few to build support and, and scope out that project.
Speaker 2:That's the kind of detail people , uh, would like to hear. Does it give you any greater comfort if there is a ban council resolution kicking this off <laugh> ?
Speaker 1:Yeah. You know, at , at , at some point. That's always important. Of course, the mandate from leadership, it doesn't have to start with that. So, you know, having a few conversations informally about, about what services Finney offers, what the lifecycle of a project is, thinking about the projects that the nation has in mind and thinking about, okay, well, maybe we already have some engineers we're working with, and maybe we, you know, but we don't have as much , um, you know, thinking through on the land use side, that's gonna help , uh, determine the demand for future services. So maybe that's an area where Finney could support, play a supportive role , um, on the team. But, and maybe we, we want to connect, you know, that engineering information and the demand for services to , you know, how are we gonna pay for it? So maybe there's some, you know, thinking through some of those, some of those gap areas where Finney can sort of play a supportive role. And then, and then, yeah, I think it's a really important course to come to, to leadership and say, you know, here's, here's the idea. Here's the project, here's how we're gonna work together as a team, and , uh, really look for that mandate. Of course, as you know, Finney is more established and operational. Um, there'll probably be some, some things like that, like times where it's really appropriate to have a B, CR , like some of the other organizations like FMB and FNTC, for example, and FNFA, you know, again, Finney's sort of in a, in-between phase here, where we're, we're , um, we're a little bit more informal, but you know, like it's always, of course, important to have a mandate from council .
Speaker 2:You mentioned in some cases it might be a counselor who is your first point of contact? Was that the case with , uh, counselor Evan Roberts at Rosa River?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it , it definitely was. It's Counselor Roberts has a real vision for some of the lands that they have, you know , um, have , have , uh, you know, north of Winnipeg, his community, most of the community lives , um, south of Winnipeg. But , um, you know, they have a parcel that , uh, that's been added to reserve. And , um, you know, it has, it's strategically located. They have some, you know, possible development opportunities there. And Councilor Roberts , um, sort of has a vision of saying, you know, we , we'd like to take advantage of those opportunities, but we know there's costs, you know, associated with developing the infrastructure required to support proposed developments, whether, you know, it's not determined yet, whether it's gonna be commercial, whether it's gonna be in light industrial, whether it's gonna be residential uses, could be a mix of all of the above. But what they do know is they need water, they need wastewater, they need roads, they need power, they need telecommunications to service all of those proposed uses. They do have a , a , uh, settlement trust that has been established, but I know Councilor Roberts has been pretty clear from his perspective that that's settlement trust is, you know, meant to also serve , um, future generations of , um, of, of members of Rosa River. And so I know what he's proposing is why don't we at least consider using the tools of the Fiscal Management Act , um, to support and recover costs associated with infrastructure there. So pretty exciting vision, and I know it's a lot to think about , um, yeah , of applying all those tools, but really they are really helpful for infrastructure projects. And so, yeah, he reached out and had a chance to , um, go out to Rosa River this spring with some folks from F NM B and FNTC and FNFA, and it was a great session with membership, talking about the opportunity.
Speaker 2:I should offer a quick correction here. I said, Saskatchewan, and indeed, you're right, it's Manitoba where they're located. So thanks for adding that. You are though, working with some communities in Saskatchewan near Regina, I think, aren't you?
Speaker 1:We are. We were just in ATE First Nation just , uh, before the conference. And , uh, and that's a community , uh, again, that has lands , uh, you know, the community is east of Regina, but they've acquired some lands , uh, to , that are added to reserve that are a bit west of Regina and strategically located. And you know, it's, again, actually there's some similarities between the situations where lands are strategically located. Um, the community is considering options for development. You know, decision hasn't been made on what type of development would be located on those lands, but what they do know is they, they need improvements to water and wastewater and the storm water management is an issue. And, and so they're sort of exploring how do they not only think about those different aspects of infrastructure, but sequence the decisions that need to be made so that they can take advantage of some of the opportunities that are coming up. Definitely. We're seeing Richard, a lot of interest from communities in Saskatchewan and Manitoba over the last few months.
Speaker 2:One question I've heard before was whether or not there is a , a dollar or monetary limit to the value of an infrastructure project that you could be involved in. And what prompted it was some of the big investments being made, for example, in pipeline infrastructure, the Clearwater seafoods, well , that's not infrastructure per se, but the , the numbers are getting bigger in a lot of these massive projects. And is there some kind of demarcation zone where, whoops, nope , that's not for us
Speaker 1:For finna , I think there's no sort of dollar value that's a limit at all. So, you know, it could be a small project. You know, we've heard from communities that say, Hey, we're, we have a community building, we'd like to, we'd like to , uh, support. We wonder if you'd help us with the community building. Now sometimes we have a conversation and say, okay, well, you know, where's the community building gonna be located? And by the way, do you have services to that site that you've proposed for that community building? And what we've heard oftentimes is, well , we pick a site, but we don't necessarily have services. And when I say services, again , I come back to water wastewater or sewer, you know, power roads , um, to connect really that site to those services that they need to operate. And although it's about the building, oftentimes we'll come back and we'll talk about that sort of in the ground infrastructure that's required to make that a reality. But there's no size limit for that. And so, you know, that could be one building. Um , and one lot it could be , you know, oftentimes we'll have that conversation and say, well, if you're thinking about expanding and making improvements to the water system, we understand you have this one community building in mind. Do you have other things in mind? And oftentimes they may say, well, actually, yeah, we have a few houses that we'd like to, to build around there. There's some, there's a housing subdivision we'd like to consider. And oh, by the way, you know, at the other end of maybe the community, there's a , an economic development opportunity we wanna, we wanna pursue. So, so oftentimes, we'll, we'll at least have that conversation, Richard, which is, if you're gonna make improvements to your, your infrastructure system, your water, your wastewater, your roads, what are your plans for the future, you know, for your nation? And is it worthwhile considering those, so, so no size limit to at the, at the bottom end for sure. Uh, I guess we just encourage and, and, and often try to at least have that conversation. Let's think about your, your whole community as it moves forward. Hmm .
Speaker 2:And a lot of these topics we're, we're discussing now, most if not all of them, have been answered directly on your website. So again, I know you encourage people to check out the website for a ton of free resources and tools there, right. That they can use as they explore things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I really encourage people to go check out the website. There's a resources page there. And actually I wanna commend that Finney technical team. We just did an update to , uh, a number of resources which are there, including , um, some templates you can download that give you a bit of guidance on preparing a business case for your project or, or also thinking about, you know, a project charter that might be useful to , as you pull together your project team, you know, how is your project team gonna work together? You can, there's some, a , a few best practices there about that. In addition, there's also , um, you know, a little explainer about cost recovery tools that are possible. So some nations might be familiar with some of them, but , um, you know, it gives you a , a sort of inventory of what are the tools that are in the toolbox that you can make use of. And, and even , um, you know, also a , a tool on , uh, procurement models, which is really what are the different models for contracting the, you know, the design and the construction and the operation and maintenance of your project. So there's also a new webinar up there. So yeah, check it out, finney.ca .
Speaker 2:Excellent. And a new video that was released fairly recently, and that does a great job explaining what you're all about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's , you know, Richard, it's amazing. You probably have experience with this, but the amount of , uh, work to go into two minutes of a video can be quite something <laugh> , which is, is what I learned. So, you know, from the concept and, and really the video arose because of these conversations we were having at conferences like this, Richard, where it's like, Hey, what kind of projects are you , when you say infrastructure, what exactly do you mean by infrastructure and , and how does Finney work with nations? So it started really with , um, one of our team members, John re drawing, I think it was on a whiteboard, a sort of graphic. And that evolved to a , you know, a more detailed graphic on paper. And then we looked at the graphic and said, geez , there's a lot going on there. I'm not sure I understand everything that this picture's telling me to a idea of why don't we try and animate it and describe what's happening. So , um, it's not very long video. Um, and it's, and it's, I would just encourage yeah , people to check it out. It's just as a helpful explainer of really some of the things we've just been talking about, like where can Finney help? What are the types of projects thinking through the different uses and plans you have for the future in your nation?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's only two minutes long. And , uh, <laugh> , I do remember John's original attempt at, at coming up with a little scribble, a little drawing, and he very bravely threw it open and said, I welcome all kinds of feedback. And he got lots of feedback, <laugh> <laugh> . And to see it go from there to where it's at now, it's , uh, that's great.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Yeah, and thanks to , um, I wanna say one of our other team members, Julie Holloway, who did the narration there, who did an amazing job in , in guiding the video through. So hands up to her.
Speaker 2:Right on. Anything else you wanna mention as we , uh, as we wind things down? I know , uh, we're coming up to Christmas holidays, so I wanna wish you and your family all the best and uh, hopefully you're taking some downtime before things hit up once again in , uh, in January.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well , um, we <laugh> , I know things tend to slow down a little bit at the holiday break because oftentimes , um, a lot of communities , um, the , maybe the band office closes for a little bit, but , uh, we, we do have sessions. We are seeing like an increase in, in interest in communities , uh, working on projects. So we're, we got meetings next week and , uh, we'll look forward to the new year and hopefully , um, continuing to reach out to communities and work with communities. And the exciting part, I guess, Richard, I know we, we have , we haven't talked about too much, but I think the board appointment process is starting. So those people that might , um, interested in, in serving with , uh, the First Nation Infrastructure Institute really check , encourage people to check that out and , um, look forward to more improved infrastructure outcomes in the new year.
Speaker 2:People can go online to look at some of the details around what it would take to apply, right?
Speaker 1:Absolutely. There's , um, on our webpage, we'll have , um, we have information there and on social media channels, LinkedIn, there's links up as well. So check out finney.ca or check out our LinkedIn social media channel. Great.
Speaker 2:We'll put that in the show notes as well. So great way to end it. We have breaking news right at the end of the podcast, <laugh>, I should have asked you that upfront . Awesome to have you on. Jason, take care. Thanks
Speaker 1:So much, Richard.
Speaker 2:So the place to go for important updates is the website, f nii.ca . There are some great tools and templates your community can use, plus contact information to help you get the ball rolling. And if you're on LinkedIn, you're invited to follow Finney there. Thank you for listening. I'm Richard Barry .
