Presentation on Partnership/Regional Development

1. Presentation on Partnership/Regional Development Best Practices Session August 23 and 24, 2004 Vancouver, B.C.

2. Atiik Askii Adventures An Initiative of the Northwest Manitoba Community FuturesDevelopment Corporation

3. Since the beginning of time, people have banded together to take on various missions to transform the present and build the future. When we decide to be social pioneers, we take on our own mission. We don’t just have a mission. Like the astronauts heading for the moon, we are the mission. The Courage to Lead R. Brian Stanfield

4. The Northwest Manitoba Region • 20% of the geographic landmass of Manitoba • 1% of its population • Severely depressed economic conditions

5. The Northwest Manitoba Regional Tourism Strategy

6. The 4 Phases of the Strategy • Phase One: Current State Analysis • Phase Two: Two Rounds of Community Consultation Workshops • Phase Three: Three Regional Tourism Committee Meetings • Phase Four: Implementation

7. The Phase 1 Report of The Northwest Manitoba Regional Tourism Strategy was concluded in May 2003. Download copies of this report at www.northwestcfdc.com

8. Implementation of Phases 2 and 3 began on November 24 2003. The first round of community consultation visits concluded on February 10 2004. • The first Regional Tourism Committee (RTC) meeting took place in Lynn Lake on February 26 2004.

9. The second round of community consultation visits began on March 12 2004 and ended on April 7 2004. The second RTC meeting took place in Lynn Lake on April 21 2004. The third and final RTC meeting occurred on May 5 2004. Implementation of Phase 4 began on June 1 2004 and is scheduled continue indefinitely from this point on.

10. The Communities Involved in Developing the Strategy Tadoule Lake (Sayisi Dene First Nation) Lac Brochet (Northlands First Nation) Brochet/Barren Lands First Nation (BLFN) Kinoosao (Thomas Clark Reserve) Lynn Lake Leaf Rapids Granville Lake Pickerel Narrows First Nation Marcel Colomb First Nation (MCFN) South Indian Lake/O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation (SIL/OPCN) Pukatawagan (Mathias Colomb Cree Nation [MCCN])

11. Local Tourism Committees (LTC’s) were formed in each of the communities. • Some communities elected to collaborate in forming of their LTC’s. • In the end, there were 10 LTC’s representing all 13 communities.

12. The 1 – 2 day workshops that resulted were devoted to building consensus for The Northwest Manitoba Regional Tourism Strategy across the region. • In addition to identifying an overall “summer” and “winter” tourism development project that would benefit every community in Northwest Manitoba, several of the LTC’s also identified local tourism development projects to implement in their immediate areas.

13. The LTC participants were asked to elect or appoint a representative to sit on the RTC. • In addition, members of the LTC’s were given three handouts: a draft action planning workbook for tourism development, a tourism development workbook (which was a hybrid version of the first handout) and a “Draft” Criteria and Guidelines for tourism development in Northwest Manitoba.

14. These three handouts were intended to familiarize the LTC’s with the scope and nature of The Northwest Manitoba Regional Tourism Strategy itself and to provide a step-by-step format for preparing tourism development proposals.

15. Developing Consensus for the Strategy • The consultation process used to build community consensus for the regional strategy was first pioneered by the Canadian Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA).

16. 4. Develop Action Plans that capture the intention(s) of the Strategic Directions 1. Define a Practical Vision for the Future of Tourism in Northwest Manitoba 3. Develop Strategic Directions to overcome the Underlying Obstacles 2. Identify Underlying Obstacles that are standing in the way of achieving the Practical Vision

17. 1. Define a Practical Vision for the Future of Tourism in Northwest Manitoba

18. 1. Define a Practical Vision for the Future of Tourism in Northwest Manitoba 3. Develop Strategic Directions to overcome the Underlying Obstacles 2. Identify Underlying Obstacles that are standing in the way of achieving the Practical Vision

19. 4. Develop Action Plans that capture the intention(s) of the Strategic Directions 1. Define a Practical Vision for the Future of Tourism in Northwest Manitoba 3. Develop Strategic Directions to overcome the Underlying Obstacles 2. Identify Underlying Obstacles that are standing in the way of achieving the Practical Vision

20. What Is Consensus? • For the purposes of developing The Northwest Manitoba Regional Tourism Strategy, consensus was defined as “at least partial agreement” with the decisions that were reached by the stakeholder groups.

21. This distinguished consensus from both majority decision making (group environments that can see as many as one less than half the total number of people in the groups completely disagreeing with the decisions) and unanimity (group environments that allow for no disagreement at all).

22. By ensuring at least partial agreement with the decisions, consensus left lots of room for disagreement, discussion and growth, but grounded the stakeholder groups in a common sense of vision and purpose.

23. Round 1, Phase 1 Community Consultation Workshops • The Phase 1 Inventory and Situational Analysis Final Report identified Aboriginal Tourism, Adventure Travel Tourism, Eco-Tourism and Winter Tourism as potential tourism development markets for Northwest Manitoba. The report indicated that hunters and fishers tourism was fairly well established in the area.

24. The Northwest CFDC Phases 2 and 3 Implementation Team used these different types of potential tourism development markets to classify and cluster the Practical Vision ideas that were generated during the community consultation workshops.

25. In addition, the Northwest CFDC Phases 2 and 3 Implementation Team broke Adventure Travel Tourism down into two categories instead of one (Hard Adventure Travel and Soft Adventure Travel) and added one more category—“Other”—to the list. This last category was intended to identify potential tourism development activities that could not be fully captured under the other categories. “Other” also included such things as “Infrastructure Improvement”

26. A total of 259 ideas for local and regional tourism development activities were generated during the course of conducting the first round of community consultation visioning workshops. • Of these, the highest number of ideas were clustered under “Winter Tourism” (54, or 20.8% of the total number of ideas that were generated), while the lowest was “Soft Adventure Travel Tourism” (20, or 7.7% of the total number of ideas that were generated).

27. Interestingly, those LTC’s that selected tourism development projects to implement in their areas chose projects that fit into the middle to lower end of this scale, rather than the higher end. • Most significant of all was that fact that over 40% chose “Other” tourism development ventures to pursue and these could more properly be understood as “Infrastructure Improvement”.

28. The Northwest CFDC Phases 2 and 3 Implementation Team understood this 40% as implying that there is a need for improvement in the basic business services and municipal infrastructures in most communities in the region. As well, basic communication technology seems to be required in most communities as are improvements in the transportation infrastructures that tie most of the communities together.

29. Phase 3: First Regional Tourism Committee Meeting • In conducting the Practical Vision brainstorming exercise, the Northwest CFDC Phases 2 and 3 Implementation Team had the convenience of 7 ready-made categories under which to cluster the 259 ideas that were generated. Unfortunately, this was not the case with brainstorming for Underlying Obstacles or Strategic Directions. In fact, the categories under which to cluster ideas for both these brainstorming sessions had to be generated at the same time as the brainstorming activities occurred.

30. A total of 196 Underlying Obstacles were identified during the Round 1, Phase 2 community consultation visioning workshops. These were clustered under 48 different categories. • Participants at the first RTC meeting regrouped these 48 categories under 9 regional classifications to produce a hybrid version of the major roadblocks that stood in the way of achieving the Practical Vision of the LTC’s.

31. Underlying Obstacles • Bureaucracy • Mind-Set • Human Resources Development • Location

32. Infrastructure • Funding • Leadership • Environmental Impacts • Marketing and Communication

33. Strategic Directions • A total of 165 proposals for Strategic Directions were identified during the course of implementing the community consultation visioning workshops. • These 165 Strategic Directions were clustered under 44 categories. Participants at the first RTC meeting regrouped the Strategic Directions categories under 9 regional classifications. These served as hybrid proposals to overcome the Underlying Obstacles standing in the way of achieving the Practical Vision of the LTC’s.

34. Training • Capacity Building • Advocacy • Co-Management • Planning

35. Marketing • Funding • Infrastructure • Commitment

36. Phase 3: First Regional Tourism Committee Meeting: Principles of Sustainable Economic Development • The Northwest Manitoba Regional Tourism Strategy is a sustainable economic development initiative. Hence, in formalizing the strategy, the RTC took into consideration the four distinguishing qualities of sustainable economic development practices and two basic principles of economic development itself.

37. Sustainable Economic Development SERV • Social responsibility • Ecological sensitivity • Cultural respect • Economic viability

38. Two Principles of Successful Economic Development Primary Industry Secondary Industry Service Industry

39. Two Principles of Successful Economic Development Brings new money into the community and/or region Outside economy Maintains a connection with the outside community Circulates the money as often as possible Retains the money in the community for as long as possible

40. 1. Strategy to Export Northwest Manitoba Arts and Crafts • Exposing tourists to Northwest Manitoba Arts and Crafts has always been understood as a way to bring new money into this region. However, the process by which tourists are exposed to Northwest Manitoba Arts and Crafts has always been seen as a function of tourists visiting the communities in the area.

41. The RTC correctly identified Northwest Manitoba Arts and Crafts as exportable products as well and reached consensus on a plan to market these products outside the region.

42. The Leaf Rapids National Exhibition Centre in Leaf Rapids (LRNEC) has expressed an interest in operating as a centralized marketing location for Northwest Manitoba Arts and Crafts products. The LRNEC will export these products to Southern Manitoba and perhaps to points beyond. • The local tourism committees will form local arts and crafts cooperatives in each of the communities in the region.

43. These cooperatives will purchase the works of local artists and craft persons. The arts and crafts will be identified with a trademark as proof of authenticity. After markup, the cooperatives will sell the products to the LRNEC. • From there, the products will be marketed to a variety of retail outlets/arts community locations in other parts of the province. Initial marketing strategies will focus solely on Manitoba. Future strategies may expand marketing campaigns to other parts of Canada and/or overseas.

44. 2. Strategy to Export the Adventure Travel Tourism Experience • The RTC reached consensus on mapping out 1) summer adventure travel canoe routes and 2) winter adventure snowmobile trails that will that will encircle the entire region and link every community. The objective of doing this is to create an adventure travel environment that will increase tourist traffic in Northwest Manitoba.

45. The urgent need for infrastructure improvement is an implicit component of this notion of mapping out a summer and winter adventure travel excursion product development package for Northwest Manitoba. It might even be understood as a product development initiative on its own. Most communities suffer from the lack of basic communication technology and it may not be possible for them to attract and host tourists.

46. Also implicit in this product development strategy is the sense that specific human resource development training needs will emerge as the process of implementing the strategy proceeds.

47. This product development strategy calls for an advanced level of resource co-management activities on the part of the Regional Tourism Committee. Current land users will become vital players in developing the canoe routes and snowmobile trails, for example, and mechanisms to control tourist access to, and traffic along, the canoe and snowmobile routes will have to be formalized, put in place and enforced.

48. Finally, this product development strategy assumes that the canoe and snowmobile routes will raise the tourism profile in Northwest Manitoba to at least the status of a secondary industry. Hence, it is anticipated that the number of spin-off service industry tourism businesses in the region will swell as a result.

49. 3. Risk Management Strategy:In-Bound Tour Operator • Risk management is understood as project/program governance, executive and administration systems that are put in place to reduce the threat of project/program failure. Certainly, an initiative that is the size and scope of The Northwest Manitoba Regional Tourism Strategy requires that some serious thought be given to monitoring and managing the implementation process.

50. The RTC reached consensus on a general strategy for risk management activities. The Northwest CFDC will continue to be the driving force behind this initiative and will provide project management services. “Dream Catcher”