Date…

Chief …
… First Nation
…..
…..
…..

Dear Chief …,

Re: Reserve Land and First Nations Development

Greetings.

My name is Paul Fauteux and I was until recently Director General of Lands at
INAC Headquarters. After more than five years in that position, at the request of
Sara Filbee, Assistant Deputy Minister for Lands and Economic Development,
and with the support of Deputy Minister Michael Wernick, I agreed to take on a
special project on Reserve Land and First Nations Development in which I hope
you will agree to participate.

The Federal Framework for Aboriginal Economic Development released by the

Government of Canada in June 2009 included enhancing the value of Aboriginal
assets among its strategic priorities and a commitment to a modern lands
management regime to help enhance the value of assets. For First Nations, this
means modernizing the reserve lands management regime to help enhance the
value of reserve lands as an asset.

To meet this commitment, the Department would like to better understand the
experience of more successful First Nations such as your own in leveraging their
reserve land for social and economic development purposes, and draw lessons
from that experience that can be of benefit to other First Nations across Canada.
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Land can contribute to well-being both indirectly by strengthening a community’s

sense of taking control of its own destiny (land as a governance/social resource)
and directly through its use as an economic resource. The Reserve Land and
First Nations Development Project will therefore examine with a group of more
successful First Nations (based on education, employment, average per capita
income and housing) the extent to which these two ways of using land are part of
their experience, and identify the problems with which they were confronted, the
solutions they developed, the factors that contributed to their success and those
that did not, and any issues they may have left unaddressed in seeking to
maximize the benefits flowing from their reserve land.

I have spoken about this project to a group of leaders of national First Nations
institutions who have an interest in reserve land and to whom I am sending a
copy of this letter, all of whom support the project and have agreed to help me
ensure that it serves First Nation interests by:
- sharing stories among more successful First Nations;
- drawing lessons from those stories; and
- making recommendations based on those lessons
so that more First Nations can become successful in leveraging their reserve
land for development purposes.

To this end, I will be carrying out structured interviews with a group of at least 25
more successful First Nations from all regions of southern Canada over the
summer months. These First Nations did not become successful overnight and,
since the land-related problems, solutions, factors and issues that are linked to
their success emerged over time, they may not all be known by any one
individual. That’s why I would like to visit the main reserve of each First Nation
and have a series of conversations with Lands, Environment and Economic
Development staff, Council members responsible for those files and the Chief.
After each visit I will prepare an interview report and send it to Chief and Council
for review and any additional recommendations. The interview reports will not be
shared without Chief and Council’s consent.

The structured interviews should be completed by early September 2010 and the
interview reports will be integrated to produce the final project report. The draft
report will be submitted for comments to the previously mentioned group of
leaders of national First Nations institutions and with participating First Nations,
all of whom will receive a copy of the final report. This report will provide
targeted fact-based advice and be an important input into the Department's
efforts to modernize reserve land management, both under and beyond the
Indian Act.
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Would you be willing to participate in this project and to receive me on your lands
for this purpose? Carole Lamarre of my office will be following up by phone in
the hope that we might agree on a mutually convenient date for me to come visit
you this summer.

Respectfully,

Paul Fauteux
Senior Advisor
Lands and Economic Development

Cc: Harold Calla of the Squamish Nation, Chairperson of the First Nations
Financial Management Board

Leona Irons of the Curve Lake First Nation, Executive Director of the
National Aboriginal Land Managers Association

C.T. (Manny) Jules, Chief Commissioner of the First Nations Tax

Commission and former Chief of the Kamloops Indian Band

Chief Clarence Louie of the Osoyoos Indian Band, Chairperson of the

National Aboriginal Economic Development Board