Media Advisory - Book Launch - Canada's North: What's the Plan?

OTTAWA, Nov. 29 /CNW/ - Land-use planning is fundamental to the sustainability and prosperity of Canada's North. It is an issue that has excited great passion and a diversity of views among Northern and Southern Canadians alike.

The Conference Board of Canada presents three very different perspectives of land-use planning in Canada's North: What's the Plan?, the fourth book in the CIBC Scholar-in-Residence Program series.

Thomas Berger, one of the three scholars and a co-author of the book, will speak at the book launch on Wednesday, December 1.

What:						4^th Scholar-in-Residence Book Launch—Canada's North: What's the Plan?
When:						Wednesday, December 1, 2010, 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
Who:						Anne Golden, President and CEO of The Conference Board of Canada, gives introductory remarks at 6:30 p.m. Thomas R. Berger, co-author, speaks at 6:45 p.m.
Where:						Conference Board of Canada offices, 255 Smyth Road.

In the book, the scholars offer their own views of land-use planning: keep it up (Thomas Berger), fix it up (Steven Kennett), and give it up (Hayden King).

Keep it up

Thomas Berger has a lifetime of impressive accomplishments related to the constitutional and legal protection of Aboriginal rights, both as a practicing lawyer and as a justice on the Supreme Court of British Columbia. He argues that land claims agreements, in addition to serving as the principal vehicle for land use planning in Canada's North, have been a remarkable and positive achievement.

"I believe land claim agreements have been the major vehicles of land use planning—planning that has taken place during negotiations, sometimes extending over many years, in which Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Northerners have played a major part. And they have, to a great extent, created the institutions for future land use planning in the North," writes Berger.

Fix It Up

Steven A. Kennett, an independent policy consultant based in Calgary, argues that fixing land-use planning in the north is essential as activity increases. It should follow three principles: begin with the end in mind, think outside the conservation-versus-development box, and demonstrate a long-term commitment to lead and support planning.

"It is important to recognize that Northern land use planning has had significant successes, despite the frustrations, and that important lessons have been learned," writes Kennett. "While there is no quick fix for Northern planning, opportunities to 'fix it up' are readily available and should be acted upon."

Give It Up

Hayden King, who teaches and undertakes research in the Indigenous Studies Program at McMaster University in Hamilton, is skeptical of land-use planning. He argues that land-use planning is another indication of a trend where Indigenous peoples struggle to be taken seriously on issues affecting their homelands.

"Indigenous notions of governance and relationships with the land are considered, but ultimately ignored and excused, while traditional Southern solutions and discourses are uncritically adopted. So, sadly, but not unpredictably, the planning processes in the North have so far disempowered Indigenous peoples in a number of both nuanced and overt ways," writes King.

The Scholar-in-Residence Program is a research program funded by CIBC and administered by The Conference Board of Canada. This year's program is also a unique joint venture with the Board's Centre for the North. Launched in 2005, the CIBC Scholar-in-Residence Program series brings nationally-renowned academic scholars to the Conference Board to study important public policy issues.

Canada's North: What's the Plan? is available at www.e-library.ca (electronic copy) or for sale (printed copy) by contacting [email protected].

For further information:

Brent Dowdall, Media Relations, Tel.: [phone] ext.  448
E-mail: [email protected]