Needham, Kimberly, "Planning with First Nations: Catalyst for Greater Self-Determination or Continued Paternalism?"

For several years there has been a growing desire among native leaders for greater self-determination or self-government powers. Inherent in the concept of self-determination and self-government is the ability for First Nation communities to make decisions regarding the allocation of their resources, to manage their own day-to-day affairs and to establish goals and priorities for future betterment. Planning may be analogous to the goals of self-determination in that it can serve as a tool for assessing needs and available resources and can set out a course of action by which these goals can be met.

The practice of planning as it has occurred in Canada's reserve communities, has often been ad hoc, culturally insensitive, imposed from the outside and antithetical to self-determination efforts. In analyzing the planning situations among the Micmac bands of Nova Scotia and the Stoney Tribe of Alberta, it appears that planning has been ineffective in improving the bands' abilities to control their environments or improve their social situations.

There is evidence that new methods of planning which are holistic in approach and address community needs and realities can be an effective step towards greater community control. Such integrated approaches to planning depend on high levels of community participation, political sanction for the process and organizational frameworks able to cope with the demands of plan formulation, implementation and revision. In the Micmac and Stoney situations, these procedural requirements are lacking.

Since planning tends to have negligible results in the absence of community sanction and suitable organizational structures, planners may need to take on a different role within some native communities. Instead of preparing plans, the role of planning practitioners might become one of preparing communities for planning. If communities are better prepared for the planning process, then planning may better serve to promote self-determination.

Atlantic Planners Institute

This page and all contents are produced by the Atlantic Planners Institute, an affiliate of the Canadian Institute of Planners.

This document was last modified on November 30, 2000.