Derek Neary
Northern News Services

Fort Simpson (Nov 16/01) - What's the next step?

That was the primary question asked by the dozen participants in the final of four community development plan workshops held in Fort Simpson over the past two weeks.

"Is there any buy into this from the leadership? Are they committed to doing what this group says?" asked Andrew Gaule. "I think there needs to be a legitimate community consensus."

Tom Wilson replied that the purpose of the workshops, sponsored by tri-council (the Liidlii Kue First Nation, Metis Local #52 and the Village of Fort Simpson), was to identify what residents could do for themselves, not what leaders must do for them.

Duncan Canvin shot back, "A lot of activity has been stifled by the people who are in power."

Without resolving the question, consultant Brian Render broke up the 10 participants -- two walked out -- into two brain-storming groups.

One group devised a six-month action plan to secure a full-time tourism co-ordinator position for Fort Simpson. The other group decided to draft a letter encouraging the Liidlii Kue First Nation to complete its Integrated Resource Management plan as quickly as possible so development can proceed.

Other topics proposed but not addressed on Thursday include residential development, biomass, food and energy self-sufficiency and promotion of development.

"We haven't really gotten very far," participant Kirby Groat said. "We have to keep the momentum going."

Participant Lyall Gill said he felt there were some significant achievements from the workshops and that a dedicated corps of people can make the objectives a reality. He suggested that they could finalize the action plans, perhaps on a Saturday.

Render remained optimistic as well.

"This is a long, slow process but I think you're going to get to that vision you had on that first night," he told the participants.

A follow-up meeting with Render is to be held, but a date hasn't been set.

The workshops were entitled, "Where do we want to be," "What is stopping us," "What can we do" and "How do we get there?"

Attendance ranged from 10 to 22 people over the four evenings.