Our Featured Celebration

 

We don’t usually look backward with this feature, but our summer break meant we failed to alert you to one of the most eagerly awaited days on the calendar: and that, of course, is September 19th, “Talk Like A Pirate” Day. The Consilium Consulting Group is, of course, the favoured corporate consulting resource for pirates everywhere. Why, you ask? Well, because they can choose to work with either ARRRluk or ARRRdos. 

Ahem. Enough of that. Time to start preparing for “Talk Like Yoda Day” (May 22nd).

WHAT'S HAPPENING AT CONSILIUM, AARLUK and ARDOS... In this corner of our site we'll be posting notes on new people, new projects, and new online materials you may find interesting. Enjoy, and come back often.

NEW PROJECTS      

It's that time of the year again - hamlet employees across Nunavut sharpen theirpencils and get ready for another round of training sessions. This year, Ron Ryan and David Boult are kicking off the first round of courses as part of the Municipal Training Organization's efforts to support capacity development within community governments. This highly successful program brings highly qualified and eager instructors (like Ron and David) to Nunavut communities. This is a reversal of historic training methods - it saves hamlet employees lots of time and enables them to focus on their studies without too much disruption to their lives. David is first off the mark, heading to Cambridge Bay in November to teach a course on small business management.

Terry Forth, James Arreak and Fred Weihs are kicking off Phase II of the Resolute Bay Community Economic Development planning process underway. James will be visiting Resolute Bay twice during the course of this Phase which will build on the work completed last Spring. Both he and Fred will be undertaking a CED Implementation Workshop with the CED Committee and Members of the Municipal Council in November.

Development of the plan comes at an exciting time – there's talk of the Northwest Passage Tourism initiatives and a potential Canadian Military Training Centre that could be established in Resolute within the next few
years.

ONGOING PROJECTS

The Two Terries (Rudden and Forth) have a completed a draft strategy for the management of contaminated sites in Nunavut, working a Committee of Government of Nunavut senior managers. Nunavut has more than 400 sites contaminated with persistent organic pollutants (POPs), heavy metals, radionucleides, or human waste. The Plan should help to ensure the remediation or management of these sites for the protection of humans, wildlife, and the environment.

The ARDOS research team for the Formative Evaluation of the AHRDAs met in Ottawa on September 13 to review plans for fieldwork. The AHRDAS Evaluation is the largest evaluation project undertaken by the Consilium Consulting Group to date. The team will be conducting research, and reporting on 13 case study AHRDAs from across the  country, as well as on the roles of HRSDC and the Aboriginal Human Resources Council of Canada. Project Manager Greg Smith and HRSDC representatives Georges Awad and Clinton Hynes reviewed the project methods and research tools with team members Jennifer David, Kim Ghostkeeper, Fern Assinewe, Alex Ker, Ryan Lotan, Ian Kenney, Ron Ryan, Chris Cloutier, and David Boult, as well as Ken Innes and Daniel Morris of EKOS Research Associates. Additional team members include Bill Vass, James Arreak and Valerie Assinewe. Fieldwork will take place between now and December, with reporting next spring and summer.

Ian Kenney has continued to work on the planning and preparations for the Workforce Connex Forum series (see www.workforceconnex.com). The next big event will be the Alberta Workforce Connex Forum set for October 18 and 19 in Red Deer Alberta, where more than 250 participants are expected, from government, employers, and AHRDA agreement holders across the province. This promises to be the largest Forum held so far in Canada. Ian has been working in recent months with a steering committee in Montréal that is planning for the "Main-d'oeuvre en connexion" Forum, set for the spring of 2007. He has also just recently helped to establish a similar planning committee in Manitoba.

 

 

Follow-up to the highly successful Achieving Objectives conference in June has begun. The Aboriginal Land Claims Coalition will meet in early October to organize, review and approve recommendations coming out of the conference, implement short and long term strategies, and develop supporting structures and operations. Patti Black is working with the Coalition technical committee as it moves into this exciting new phase.

By the way, we've put together a PowerPoint slideshow of images from "Achieving Objectives", June's major conference on the implementation of Land Claims. You can download the show (and a PowerPoint viewer) by going to http://www.consilium.ca/alcc2006/main.html selecting the "Proceedings" tab, and going down the list to "Other: PowerPoint Montages."

HAPPY ENDINGS

For years Tony Penikett has been a leading figure in the negotiation of Land Claims in Canada – as Deputy Minister of Negotiations for the BC Government, as Premier of the Yukon, and a teacher and mediator. The man who wrote the book on land claims negotiation has actually written the book on land claims negotiation: "Reconciliation: First Nations Treaty Making in British Columbia" was launched last month in Vancouver and Ottawa. The Ottawa event, organized by Jennifer David of ARDOS, was hosted by Senator Hugh Segal, and held at the Chateau Laurier Hotel.  Pictured right is Jennifer David, ARDOS and Ron Ryan, The Consilium Consulting Group.

 

 

 

The work of Iqaluit's "Embrace Life" committee under the direction of Lori Idlout was praised and profiled by Nunatsiaq News. Singled out for special coverage was the Embrace Life Community Resource Toolkit prepared by Blair Stephenson, Clive Tesar and Terry Rudden.

 

Waking up to Tourism: Recognizing Nunavut as Canada's Most Exotic Destination. A planning project to put shape to a high-level, high-profile tourism conference in Nunavut is complete. Working with Nunavut Tourism and members of the Nunavut Tourism Task Force, Patti Black developed an agenda, secured international  speakers, and put together a fabulous plan for a premier event in Iqaluit. The projectis now awaiting funding to go-ahead. Stay tuned!

 

TEN YEARS AGO THIS MONTH

Working with NTI, Ron Ryan, Fred Weihs and Terry Rudden helped to complete an analysis of Inuit employment plans prepared by what was then the Government of the Northwest Territories. The analysis suggested that upon division the new Government of Nunavut would find it difficult or impossible to meet their Inuit employment requirements under the Nunavut Land Claim, a finding that earned them low points for optimism but full marks
for prophecy.

 

BIRTHDAYS

A very special day in the annals of Aarluk last month: our Youth Representative on the Aarluk Board, Helen Klengenberg, finally passed the 50 year mark. Ever one to celebrate in style, Helenmarked the occasion by becoming a grandmother AGAIN, when her daughter Michelle gave birth on Sunday August 27, 2006 to a REALLY healthy baby girl weighing in at 4.6 kg.

Coming up in October: Ryan (No Longer The Youngest Consiliumite) Lotan, Oct. 15th; Jennifer (Voice of Consilium) Bradshaw on Oct. 18th, and Valerie (Who Put the A in ARDOS?) Assinewe on October 22nd.

GOSSIP       

 

After much secrecy, we are pleased to finally announce the first ever Consilium wedding. Ian Kenney will be marrying his girlfriend Annie next month in Ottawa. This will be not just the uniting of two people in marriage, but also the coming together of three daughters from previous marriages, two dogs, two languages, and far too many toasters and coffee mugs. The first order of business for the new couple after coming home from their honeymoon on an unknown Caribbean island will be to buy a bigger home with as many showers as possible. Congratulations to you both, and
welcome, Annie, to the Consilium family.

 

 

As reported earlier, Terry and Mehrun Forth spent much of June travelling in Europe. This was ostensibly Terry's way of celebrating his birthday, by being out of the country to avoid having to hear his Rotarian Colleagues sing Happy Birthday (and who knows what else.) The trip included attendance at the Rotary International Convention in Copenhagen, Denmark and Malmo, Sweden June 11-15. These twocities are joined by one of the worls's longest bridges which became the theme of this year's convention – "Bridging the World". About 15,000 Rotarians from 160 countries descended on this small European corner for a phenomenal few days of meetings. While in Scandinavia, Terry and Mehrun also visited Stockholm, Sweden and Oslo, Norway, the home of the famous Fram Museum and the Gjoa. Enroute, they spent a few days in Scotland (Here Terry is shown visiting the Discovery Museum in Dundee – home of the RSS Discovery, another famous Polar vessel.)

 

 

Ron Ryan's son Tim has temporarily forsaken his accounting career for the Rock and Roll life, and is managing a national tour for the latest maritime country-rock sensation, The Grass (just nominated for the 2006 Nova Scotia Music Country/Bluegrass Recording of the Year for their cd "Mulgrave").

 

This month Aarluk Consulting is a proud sponsor of the first annual Habitat for Humanity Iqaluit Invitational Golf Tournament taking place October 12th in Gatineau Quebec. Team Aarluk golfing partners will be led by veteran golfer – Ron Ryan and will include Morgan Hare, Daryl Dibblee and Terry Forth.

 

Join Consilium, and See The World. Ryan Lotan contemplates life, universe and the tides of Koojesse Inlet during his first trip to Iqaluit this June. Iqaluit's tides - nearly a dozen metres – are among the highest in Canada. During sealift, boats simply beach at low tide, and transport trucks drive out onto the seabed to collect the cargo.

           

 

 

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