Four Fort Smith local governments have committed to working together to improve the lives of constituents.
The governments in question — Salt River First Nation, Smith’s Landing First Nation, Fort Smith Métis Council and the Town of Fort Smith — made it official by signing a memorandum of agreement on June 21. Jay Macdonald, the MLA for Thebacha, also put pen to paper.
The deal, called a Collaborative Leadership Initiative (CLI), was facilitated by the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources (CIER), an organization operating out of Winnipeg. Former Thebacha MLA, GNWT minister, and longtime Fort Smith resident J. Michael Miltenberger, who now works with CIER, served as the lead for the project.
"We've been working on this for the last three years and a bit," Miltenberger said. "This is a project where we work with the two orders of governments that normally don't work together — Indigenous governments and municipal governments — at the community level to work on issues of common concern that they've come to realize that they can't do on their own.
"We have come to realize status quo is not working, that no one government can go it alone anymore in this day and age."
Creating Fort Smith's CLI was not without challenges, according to Miltenberger. The biggest hurdle early on was "the leaders collectively deciding they wanted to proceed" with the agreement.
"The community has a long history of working together, but a lot of it's just project-based," said Miltenberger. "Things happen and they work together, then everybody goes back to doing their business.
"That's probably the biggest starting point, to get around the table and talk about how we do business, and recognizing that there are going to be things that the parties will disagree on."
In a news release announcing the CLI, Salt River First Nation Chief Toni Heron said the deal will serve as "a guide to ensure the community and people of Fort Smith are supported in a collaborative effort to support issues that pertain to the well-being of our community and members.”
Fort Smith Métis Council President Allan Heron called the deal "historic," and said it reflects the governments' "unwavering commitment" to the prosperity of the community.
Smith's Landing First Nation Chief Thaidene Paulette called it "a testament to the power of collaboration."
By Miltenberger's estimation, the involved governments will continue to face challenges as they work to serve the people of Fort Smith, but they will be better positioned to do so by working as a team.
"The governments above us are broke," he said. "Nobody's coming to save us, and so now we have to combine the expertise and social and political influence of the governments here.
"They are going to put their minds to coming up with solutions for a lot of the local issues. They will turn their attention to housing. There's health and economic issues, tourism issues, there's issues with water, and the territorial government does not have the answers.
"Most of the solutions — if not all — are here, and we'll find them."
The parties involved in the new CLI had a signing ceremony on June 21, which was marked by feelings of accomplishment and optimism about the future, according to Miltenberger. Now that the deal has been finalized, however, it is time for the real work to begin.
Those efforts started with a meeting on June 26. At that time, leaders began hashing out any lingering "operational questions," and addressing the "most immediate priorities of common concern," according to Miltenberger.
"Stay tuned," he said, "because now we're all going to get to work."