Strategic plan in the works on Walpole Island

Walpole Island is working on a strategic plan, which will help guide the First Nation community over the next 20 plus years.

James Jenkins, political advisor to Walpole Island’s chief and council, said work on the plan started about six months ago.

“The idea behind the plan is to just really engage community members in a meaningful way,” Jenkins told the Sydenham Current.

“We are really just unrolling it now so the timeline for the comprehensive plan will realistically take three years or more to complete. We are soliciting feedback from different sectors of the community so that the future administrations and leaders will have a mandate from communities for how to move forward. Theses are all living documents so they can changed moving forward.”

Jenkins said they have been in discussions with Aboriginal Affairs with the federal government to seek a partnership.

“So we have the resources moving forward on a community plan, Jenkins said.

“They’re excited because there has been quite a few First Nations in British Columbia that have completed comprehensive community plans and it’s something they would like to see more of in Ontario. It’s really just part of us playing a bigger role in controlling our own governance and our own long term decisions.”

Jenkins said it is a 20-year plan.

“What is the vision of the community in 20 years and what are we going to do to get there. I think the really important part of it is community buy in and community ownership, because we try to involve the community as much as we can. It’s different than the political process. It’s meant to be something enduring that remains just as meaningful as political administrations change,” Jenkins said.

The plan is “really just unrolling” and in the last year we developed roles and responsibilities for council “just as part of an update of our administrative code.

“So, we do have a new council handbook and we are trying to move forward on these kinds of issues every year. That is just our way of moving forward to control our destiny more and more,” Jenkins said.