Three of Canada’s foremost practitioners in reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, Merrell-Ann Phare, Michael Miltenberger, and professional planner, project manager, capacity developer and engagement specialist, Christine Callihoo, discuss how they are creatively transforming legal and political approaches to reconciliation in Canada that include land use and community-based planning with climate change mitigation and adaptation at the forefront.
In this video replay, there is also a BC forest update and a review of the key transformational moments presented in our Season One webinars.
Other special guests in this webinar include Robert Sandford, Global Water Futures Chair in Water and Climate Security at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health; Jon O’Riordan, our Climate and the Arts partner; and Victoria Symphony principal cellist, Brian Yoon, performing a Gigue from one of Bach’s Unaccompanied Cello Suites.
Bob Sandford holds the Global Water Futures Chair in Water and Climate Security at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health. In this capacity Bob was the co-author of the UN Water in the World We Want report on post-2015 global sustainable development goals relating to water. He is also lead author of Canada in the Global World, a new United Nations expert report examining the capacity of Canada’s water sector to meet and help others meet the United Nations 2030 Transforming Our World water-related Sustainable Development Goals.
Merrell-Ann Phare is a lawyer with the Phare Law Corporation, a writer and the founding Executive Director of the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources (CIER), a national First Nation charitable environmental organization. She is the author of the books Denying the Source: The Crisis of First Nations Water Rights and Ethical Water: Learning to Value What Matters Most.
As Chief Negotiator for the Government of Northwest Territories, Merrell-Ann led the negotiation of transboundary water agreements in the Mackenzie River Basin and the creation of Thaidene Nene, a national and territorial park in the east arm of Great Slave Lake. She is legal counsel and advisor to a number of First Nation and other governments and organizations and regularly speaks on water issues and First Nations.
Michael Miltenberger is Métis, lives in Fort Smith, NWT, and works with Aboriginal and Crown governments, ENGO’s, industry and the private sector providing strategic political advice. Michael is the principal of North Raven Consulting. His interests are water protection and governance, working collaboratively on environmental protection, renewable energy development, building efficient government, expediting land claims, and strategic planning.
Prior to his current work, he spent 20 years as MLA in the NWT Legislature, 14 of those years as Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources, Minister of Finance, Minister of Health and Social Services and the Minister Responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation.
Jon O’Riordan is a violist and choir member, and the founder of the Gail O’Riordan Climate and the Arts Legacy Series. He obtained an MA degree in Geography from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD from the University of British Columbia. Jon worked in the public service throughout his career first with the Federal Government and then with the Province of British Columbia. He completed his full time work as Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management. After leaving government, he taught a graduate course in Resource Planning and Public Policy at UBC and has since undertaken research on watershed governance for the Polis Project on Ecological Governance at University of Victoria and on climate change adaptation at Simon Fraser University.