Our Featured Celebration

July 17th is the day fans of transatlantic flight commemorate the infamous journey of Douglas “Wrong-Way” Corrigan, the directionally-challenged American aviator who took off on that date in 1938 from Brooklyn, New York, heading west for his home in California, and landed twenty-eight hours later – in Ireland. Wrong-Way Corrigan claimed for the rest of his life that it was a simple navigational error caused by a malfunctioning compass. This was possible, given that he had rebuilt his airplane himself: at one point during the flight he was forced to punch a hole in the floor of the cockpit with a screwdriver when his jury-rigged gas tanks began to leak, filling the plane ankle-deep with fuel.

NEW BEGINNINGS

Our finance wizard Lei Han has successfully passed his six-month trial period (an arduous process involving martial training, memorization of corporate history, and fifty-two hours of solitary meditation atop Mt. Crispin), and is now a permanent Consiliumite. Welcome, Lei, and thank your for your good humour, diligence and hard work; you’ve been a wonderful addition to the team. Did you read the fine print on the contract – the part about having to give five years notice if you ever decide to leave?

ONGOING PROJECTS

The 2009 evaluation of the Nunavut Implementation Training Committee is entering its final stages, as Terry Rudden and Christian “the Clootch” Cloutier conduct the final project interviews, and chase down the last few outstanding surveys. If you’re a DIO or IPG reading this, and you still have an incomplete survey form sitting in your in-basket – beware. The Clootch is coming.

Blair Stevenson completed the first phase of an evaluation of Déline’s education system. The goal of the evaluation was to assess Déline’s education system in relation to current Government of the Northwest Territories standards and the education vision of the community in the context of ongoing self-government negotiations. The report focuses on educational standards, and their relationship to learning outcomes, and considers whether current programming positively or negatively affects desired learning outcomes.

HAPPY ENDINGS

After nearly two years of discussion and negotiation, Sagamok Anishnawbek concluded an Impacts and Benefits Agreement with Ursa Major Minerals for the Shakespeare Project, a proposed open-pit nickel mine located in the First Nation’s traditional territory. A formal signing ceremony will take place in the community on August 12th. Sagamok has been supported in its mineral initiatives, including IBA negotiations, by Consilium’s Alex Ker and Fred Weihs since 2007. IBA negotiations between Sagamok and Vale Inco for the Totten Mine are presently ongoing.

Stonecircle has completed the Process and Impact Evaluation of the National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO). The Stonecircle team (Greg Smith, Jennifer David, Patty Saulis, David Boult and Terry Rudden) conducted an evaluation of NAHO over the past year, in collaboration with a NAHO evaluation working group. The findings from document and file reviews and key informant interviews will be incorporated by NAHO into a report to Health Canada, which will also include results from a separately contracted survey of awareness of NAHO among First Nations, Métis and Inuit throughout Canada.

Greg Smith, Galin Kora and the Clootch attended the annual Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) Conference in Ottawa from May 31 to June 3. All three are CES members and actively involved in evaluation projects. The conference is an opportunity to hone skills, meet evaluation colleagues and catch up on new developments in the evaluation field. The Consilium Consulting Group and affiliates have conducted numerous evaluations over the past fifteen years for a wide variety of clients, including federal and territorial government departments, NGOs, Aboriginal organizations, non-Aboriginal organizations and the private sector. Highlights have included a number of major evaluations of AHRDAs for HRSDC, evaluations of various Aboriginal programs for Heritage Canada, and projects for several Aboriginal health, educational, and human resources development organizations, as well as an evaluation of a CIDA-funded training project in Kazakhstan.

Canadians need to pay attention to the “new reality of the North” as the region is being transformed from the outside by climate change and from within, by new agreements. That was the message from 2030 NORTH, a conference involving key northern and southern representatives. 2030 NORTH was co-hosted by the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee (CARC), Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) and the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary. Coordinated by Consiliumites Patti Black and the Clootch, with support from Fred Weihs, Jennifer Bradshaw, Rebecca Shrubb and Alyssa Whiteduck, 2030 NORTH attracted over 200 participants from across Canada and internationally.

In a second project with the Déline Land Corporation, Alex Ker delivered the results of a high level assessment of prospects for the centralization of accounting systems of the various governments and organizations in Déline. The project inventoried current financial management and accounting systems and identified optional processes, leading to a centralized accounting system as part of the transition to Déline Got’ine Government.

Congratulations to the Nunavut Municipal Training Organization (MTO), which earned a national Workplace Literacy and Learning Award from the Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators (CAMA) in Whistler, BC. The MTO is an innovative non-profit organization, created in 2003 through collaboration between the Nunavut Association of Municipal Administrators and the Government of Nunavut’s Department of Community and Government Services, with the ambitious goal of delivering training to municipal employees across Nunavut. Since the training program was launched in 2004, more than 500 Records of Achievement have been issued. The program’s success has had a huge impact on the delivery of quality municipal programs and services throughout the Territory. And one of MTO’s key organizers during its launch and first years of operation was none other than our own General Manager, Chuck Gilhuly! (Pictured left to right, Owen Tobert, President of CAMA; Margaret Taylor, Government of Nunavut, Community and Government Services; and Ron Penney Chairperson, CAMA Literacy group.)

 

As we go to press a final report on the INAC Land Use Planning and Impact Assessment Act Consultations held in Nunavut in April is being delivered to the department’s Resource Policy and Programs Branch. Readers of our May edition will recall that Aarluk was called upon to provide a range of supports to INAC as it embarked on a fast-paced public consultation in Nunavut on NLUPIAA. A team led by Chuck Gilhuly and Alex Ker coordinated logistical aspects of the INAC consultation process including preparation of a public and stakeholder notification strategy, communications materials, organization of meetings in ten Nunavut communities, translation and interpretation services, and organization of transportation and accommodation for INAC consultation teams. Team included Terry Rudden, Galin Kora, Geoff Rigby, Jennifer Bradshaw and Leslie Sutherland. Terry Forth, Ron Ryan and David Boult accompanied INAC consultation teams into the communities, ensuring INAC officials learned the finer points of hitchhiking from airport to town in Nunavut as well as how to cobble together a meal using only co-op supplied foodstuffs. Stephanie Irlbacher Fox documented a consultation in Yellowknife on behalf of Aarluk.

         

The Consilium Consulting Group and sister companies Aarluk and Stonecircle held their annual Staff Retreat last month. The retreat is part of the CCG’s Annual Planning cycle, which culminates in August with a meeting of all shareholders in a highly secret bunker concealed beneath the Gatineaus. (Pictured above left to right, front row: Leslie Sutherland, Jennifer Bradshaw; back row: Alex Ker, Galin Kora, Chuck Gilhuly, Terry Rudden, the Clootch, Geoff Rigby, and Lei Han.)

BIRTHDAYS

July birthday honours go to Patti Black on July 12 and Chuck Gilhuly on July 24! Patti will be spending her “F-word” birthday (as in Forty, but also Fit, or Fabulous) with husband Scott on a 2-week cycling trip in the Dordogne Valley in France in July. Chuck, for whom forty is a receding memory, started his celebrations early and is taking the whole month off.

 

GOSSIP

Aarluk has been a long time supporter of Habitat for Humanity Iqaluit (HFHIQ) which started a second build over the June 20-21st weekend (longest days in the year). This was the very first “Midnight Sun” Build for Habitat Humanity anywhere in the world and Global Village volunteers from across Canada (and even some from the US) were in Iqaluit “jump starting” the build with the aid of local volunteers and selected family. While Aarluk’s Terry Forth (HFHIQ Vice Chair) has been involved with the local affiliate of Habitat since its beginnings, he was recently elected to the National Habitat for Humanity Board of Directors at the association’s AGM in Winnipeg, Man. (Pictured with Terry; centre: Kieran O’Sullivan, HFHIQ Secretary; and right: Glenn Cousins, HFHIQ Chair.)

A highlight of Jen Bradshaw and husband Al’s annual pilgrimage to Oqanquit, Maine was their discovery of Smitty’s Cinema, an idea so brilliant it immediately sparked a re-jigging of at least one retirement plan in the company – a movie theatre that that not only runs movies, but also serves drinks, and pub food in comfy chairs. Genius.

Come to think of it, the crew has had an exceptionally active couple of months on the gossip front. Members of our staff have attended the opening night of Helen Mirren’s “Phaedra” in London, had lunch stolen by a baboon in South Africa, been commissioned to write a book on a national broadcaster, served as a juror on an especially grisly murder trial, dove on a sunken Japanese fleet in the mid-Pacific (pictured left), swigged a Mojito in Ernest Hemmingway’s favourite Havana Hotel, and hung-out for a week at a friend’s private winery in BC. Our water cooler conversations are NEVER dull.

Constant readers of Our Times will be familiar with The Crispies, the Annual Awards Party and Banquet held by Consilium, Stonecircle, and Aarluk. The Crispies are awarded annually for outstanding corporate achievement. Last year, for instance, Crispies were awarded for accomplishments that included:

• Having the most telephone numbers (won by Terry Forth)
• Being the speediest e-mail responder (won by Greg Smith)
• Master of the Film Trivia Universe (the incomparable J-Brad)
• Most lunches decomposing in the second floor fridge (can’t quite remember who won that one)

As a consulting firm with a deep commitment to the principle that our clients know best, we are pleased this year to invite you to participate in the 2009 READERS’ CHOICE CRISPIES. Over the next month, send your suggestions for Crispie Awards YOU would like see to ourtimes@consilium.ca. We’ll chose the best five (within the limits of libel legislation and good taste, of course) and publish them in next month’s newsletter, prior to the Crispie Awards themselves. Every successful suggestion will receive an authentic, 100% paper, guaranteed Certificate of Crispness, signed by the winner of the category you proposed.

BE PART OF THE 2009 CRISPIES, AND STEP UP INTO CONSILIUM HISTORY.

CHECK BACK EVERY MONTH FOR MORE CONSILIUM, STONECIRCLE AND AARLUK NEWS, TOOLS, AND GOSSIP.