Reconciliation and Open Government (CA0072)

Reconciliation and open government
Issue to be addressed
The Government of Canada is committed to a renewed, nation-to-nation relationship with
Indigenous Peoples, based on recognition of rights, respect, cooperation, and partnership, open
government activities.
The Government of Canada acknowledges the great harm some of its policies and laws have
caused to Indigenous people and their cultures, heritage, and languages. Government must
strive to ensure this history is not repeated by working to ensure Indigenous perspectives,
values, and lived experiences are included in decisions about the policies, laws, relationships,
and decisions that impact their lives. As expressed in the United Nations Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), government must also “respect and promote the
inherent rights of indigenous peoples which derive from their political, economic and social
structures and from their cultures, spiritual traditions, histories, and philosophies, especially
their rights to their lands, territories, and resources.”
Commitment
Open government is a way to ensure that government decision-making processes represent
and are informed by the voices of the people that will be affected by them. The Government of
Canada will engage directly with First Nations, Inuit and Métis rights holders and stakeholders
to explore an approach to reconciliation and open government, in the spirit of building
relationships of trust and mutual respect.
This commitment has been purposely designed to allow for significant co-creation and
co-implementation, encouraging First Nations, Inuit, and Métis rights holders and stakeholders
to define their own approaches to engagement on open government issues. We recognize that,
in contrast to other commitments, government cannot act alone to define an approach.
Instead, we must work in partnership with First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.
The following is a non-exhaustive list of activities and engagement processes that we could
explore in the coming years to allow us to continue our journey of reconciliation and
relationship-building.
Lead department(s)
Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNA); Statistics Canada (StatCan);
Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS)
Milestones
42
What will we do? How we will know we succeeded? What is our
deadline?
9.1 Work with Indigenous
peoples to advance open
government
(TBS)
Through in-person and online dialogue,
scope is assessed for stronger
collaboration with Indigenous peoples on
open government and data governance
August 2020
All members of the Open Government
team in TBS receive OCAP training
(Ownership, Control, Access and
Possession)
April 2019
Options are explored, in collaboration
with the First Nations Information
Governance Centre (FNIGC) and the
Canada School of Public Service, for
supporting officials in departments across
government to receive OCAP training
June 2020
9.2 Build capacity for
Indigenous communities and
organizations to use data and
research for their own
requirements and needs
(StatCan)
In co-development with Indigenous
organizations and communities,
15 workshops are delivered in Indigenous
communities on the use of open
government data to support improved
social and economic outcomes. Where
possible, remote participation options
will be provided
June 2020
9.3 Work with Indigenous
peoples to identify ways in
which transparency around
consultation and engagement
activities can be enhanced
(CIRNA)
Systems supporting consultation and
engagement are updated to enhance
transparency
August 2020

Design Report

9. Reconciliation and Open Government

Open government is a way to ensure that government decision-making processes represent and are informed by the voices of the people that will be affected by them. The Government of Canada will engage directly with First Nations, Inuit and Métis rights holders and stakeholders to explore an approach to reconciliation and open government, in the spirit of building relationships of trust and mutual respect.

This commitment has been purposely designed to allow for significant co-creation and co-implementation, encouraging First Nations, Inuit, and Métis rights holders and stakeholders to define their own approaches to engagement on open government issues. We recognize that, in contrast to other commitments, government cannot act alone to define an approach. Instead, we must work in partnership with First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of activities and engagement processes that we could explore in the coming years to allow us to continue our journey of reconciliation and relationship-building.

Milestones

9.1 Work with Indigenous peoples to advance open government (Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat)

9.2 Build capacity for Indigenous communities and organizations to use data and research for their own requirements and needs (Statistics Canada)

9.3 Work with Indigenous peoples to identify ways in which transparency around consultation and engagement activities can be enhanced (Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada)

For more details about the commitment text, milestones, self-identified success criteria, and estimated completion dates see, https://open.canada.ca/en/content/canadas-2018-2020-national-action-plan-open-government#toc3-4

Start Date: August 2019

End Date: Varies according to milestone

Context and Objectives

This commitment grows out of one of the 5 Key Recommendations advanced in the IRM’s Canada Progress Report 2016-2017, [68] and the current government’s commitment to reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous Peoples. In this instance, the absence of a pre-specified challenge/problem and benchmarks for the commitment and its milestones is methodologically appropriate precisely because the commitment is,

purposely designed to allow for significant co-creation and co-implementation, encouraging First Nations, Inuit, and Métis rights holders and stakeholders to define their own approaches to engagement on open government issues.

The strategy to exploring opportunities for reconciliation and open government set out in this commitment is built around three milestones that propose a number of activities and engagement processes. This non-exhaustive list of actions seeks to create spaces for dialogue and collaboration about open government and data governance, build capacity for Indigenous communities and organizations in the use of data, and to update systems supporting consultation and engagement to enhance transparency.

The three milestones and the respective government-identified criteria for assessing success align most closely with the OGP value of Civic Participation insofar as they are all oriented toward the GoC working in partnership with First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. This said, it is important to acknowledge that First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples do not consider themselves members of Canadian civil society as commonly understood within the OGP context, nor as stakeholders in the federal government’s OGP-related activities. [69] As stated by a contributor to the July-August 2018 draft commitment, [70]

Our desire is to be functional, transparent effective governments again, ourselves. We are not just Indigenous peoples; we are citizens of Indigenous Nations.

When combined with the success criteria identified in the action plan, each of the three milestones are sufficiently specific so as to be verifiable by exercising a degree of interpretation in terms of measurability.

The cornerstone of meaningful dialogue that seeks to build “relationships of trust and mutual respect” within the context of reconciliation and open government is Nation-to-Nation engagement, “with Indigenous Nations setting the terms of the ownership and stewardship of their data as it best reflects the aspirations and needs of their peoples and communities.” [71] To this end, the issue of Indigenous data sovereignty has, and remains, central to the process of reconciliation and trust building. [72] The scale and scope of Commitment 9 is limited precisely because it does not directly address or otherwise engage with this issue. As stated in Resolution 57/2016 passed at the 2016 Annual General Assembly of the Assembly of First Nations, the starting point on the journey of reconciliation and relationship-building with Indigenous Peoples with regard to open government is the need for the Government of Canada to commit itself [73] to meaningful Nation-to-Nation dialogue about data sovereignty, [74] and the repatriation of First Nations’ data. [75] The Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami’s (2018: 32) National Inuit Strategy on Research likewise specifies that, “Ensuring Inuit access, ownership, and control over data and information gathered on our population, wildlife, and environment is a key pillar of achieving Inuit self-determination in research.” [76] Similar tenets are also evident in the OCAS Principles set out by the Manitoba Métis Federation. [77]

The opinions expressed during the discussions with leaders in First Nations’ data governance, civil society representatives, and government stakeholders diverged about the need for, and the appropriateness of, including this commitment in the action plan. Some government representatives believed it to be important to include, at minimum, a non-comprehensive commitment oriented toward initiating dialogue about open government between the GoC and Indigenous Nations. Leaders in First Nations’ data governance, and some members of civil society, on the other hand averred that Indigenous Nations are not stakeholders in Canada’s OGP activities, and that inclusion of the commitment in the action plan should not have proceeded without prior agreement from Indigenous leaders and communities about its content. This view was aptly summed up by one of the leaders in First Nations’ data governance who stated:

We should have set the bar; the indicator. Then, we would be holding Canada to account. Right now, what is the recourse if Canada lets us down?

Representatives of Indigenous Nations have long made it clear that in order to be meaningful, discussions about reconciliation and open government need to take place on a Nation-to-Nation basis working toward decolonizing of data. This entails engaging from the start with such issues as:

• Data sovereignty;
• The repatriation of Indigenous Nations’ data;
• Navigating intersections between OCAP Principles, Inuit principles for ensuring Inuit access, ownership, and control over Inuit-specific data and information, [78] Métis OCAS Principles, [79] and Crown Law; and
• Navigating between culturally specific differences in the meaning of ‘openness.’

In the absence of any direct engagement with the above concerns, it is unclear how the spaces for dialogue and exploration set out in Commitment 9 substantively differ from previous efforts of engagement between the GoC and Indigenous Nations regarding issues of data exchange and governance, and/or how they would directly contribute to changing the status quo. As such, the commitment is it deemed as having no potential impact.

Next steps

There are clear and necessary grounds for the GoC to engage in dialogue with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Nations about open government especially if it wishes to ensure “government decision-making processes represent and are informed by the voices of the people that will be affected by them.” The existing data governance relationship between Indigenous Nations and the GoC is not working nearly as well as it could and should. First Nations, Inuit, Métis, and Canada as a whole stand to benefit by changing the existing relationship.

Working to decolonize data within the Canadian context could fall within the auspices of an OGP action plan insofar as it entails the Canadian government making accessible information it holds about Indigenous Peoples and in so doing increasing its accountability to them. Such actions could be guided by Nation-to-Nation conversations resembling, but distinct from, the type of civil society–government dialogue championed by the OGP.

The co-development journey taken between 2016 and 2018 by officials from the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) and Indigenous Services (IS) to create a shared vision for a new fiscal relationship for First Nations and the GoC may offer some lessons for moving forward with reconciliation and open government. Of particular salience is the learning this journey offers about the creation of an advisory committee to provide further guidance on, in this instance, the development a new data governance relationship. [80] With this in mind, the IRM researcher recommends that the GoC consider committing itself to engaging in Nation-to-Nation dialogue that is oriented toward articulating a new shared vision for a new data governance relationship. Once a shared vision has been agreed upon, the parties could then collaboratively decide how best to put it in practice.

1. Engagement on data governance between First Nations leadership within each respective region.
2. The establishment of a First Nation data governance champion in each region, identified by First Nations regions themselves.
3. The development of fully functional regional First Nations information government centres.
4. Coordination of First Nations regions, data governance champions and national partners to establish a national First Nations data governance strategy

Transitional Results Report

Commitment 9. Reconciliation & Open Government

Completion: Substantial

This commitment grew out of one of the five key recommendations advanced in the IRM’s Canada Progress Report 2016–2017, [118] and the current government’s commitment to reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous Peoples. This commitment and its milestones lacked any pre-specified challenge/problem and benchmarks against which to assess progress. This was appropriate in this instance because the commitment was purposely designed “to allow for significant co-creation and co-implementation, encouraging First Nations, Inuit, and Métis rights holders and stakeholders to define their own approaches to engagement on open government issues.” [119]

As noted in the IRM’s Canada Design Report (2018–2020), First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples do not consider themselves as members of Canadian civil society as commonly understood within the OGP context, or as stakeholders in the federal government’s OGP-related activities. [120] Moreover, in the absence of any direct engagement with such issues as Indigenous data sovereignty; the repatriation of Indigenous Nations’ data; navigating intersections between First Nations’ Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession (OCAPÒ) Principles, Inuit principles for ensuring Inuit access, ownership, and control over Inuit-specific data and information, [121] Métis ownership, control, access and stewardship Principles, [122] and Crown Law; and navigating between culturally specific differences in the meaning of ‘openness,’ it was and remains unclear how the spaces for dialogue and exploration set out in Commitment 9 substantively differed from previous efforts of engagement between the GoC and Indigenous Nations regarding issues of data exchange and governance, and/or how they would directly contribute to changing the status quo. As such, this commitment was evaluated as having no potential to open government. [123]

As per the information reported at the National Action Plan Open Government Tracker, substantial progress was made on the first two milestones, and limited progress was reported for the third. [124] This said, it must be noted that progress across the three milestones was hampered by the disproportionate impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on Indigenous communities, as well as staff shortages and the lack of appropriate in-house expertise.

In terms of milestone 9.1, dialogues with Indigenous peoples about open governance were postponed in response to the pandemic. However, all members of the Open Government team at TBS completed OCAP^Ò training [125] and measures are in place to ensure that new members will also receive training. TBS, First Nations Information Governance Centre, and the Canada School of Public Service discussed options to provide OCAP^Ò training across government. The IRM did not find evidence that an OCAP^Ò training course for public servants has been developed or delivered during the period under review. [126]

For milestone 9.2, Statistics Canada held dialogues with some 140 Indigenous communities and organizations to identify data capacity needs. Based on these discussions, Statistics Canada designed and piloted training modules on topics such as statistics, data visualization, Using Data for Proposal Writing, Surveys from Start to Finish, and Excel. Statistics Canada, also launched the Indigenous Data Portal in June 2019. [127] Preliminary work reportedly continues on the development of the Indigenous Statistical Advisory Committee. [128]

The efforts associated with milestone 9.3 largely focused on implementing enhancements to the Aboriginal Treaty Rights Information System (ATRIS) in accord with consultations and collaboration with Indigenous groups to validate information contained in the system about their communities. [129]