Council commits to more collaboration
A collection of free seeds given out earlier this February at a conference hosted by Kahnawake Collective Impact (KCI). Courtesy Kahnawake Collective Impact
The Mohawk Council chiefs on the environment file have an updated mandate following this week’s Council meeting. It now includes a new commitment to do more to collaborate with community-led groups, said Ross Montour, the lead on the file.
“The language in the mandate has been updated to open the door to work with various groups,” said Montour, who also shares the file alongside Council chiefs Jeremiah Johnson and Stephen McComber.
Chiefs on this portfolio are now expected to “ensure community strategic alignment that works towards fostering and promoting initiatives that support the community vision,” he said, and to “support community wide initiatives that aim to develop linkages and plans for collaborative and sustainable community development, such as comprehensive community planning with Kahnawake Collective Impact (KCI),” behind the recent seed conference held in town.
The decision to commit toward working in collaboration with community organizations comes following discussions with the Kahnawake Environment Protection Office (KEPO), Montour said, but these collaborations aren’t new.
“It was really more a way of saying, ‘Okay, let’s put something in the mandate that formalizes that we can have relationships with various community initiatives,” he said.
Those initiatives could revolve around local food production, he said, or projects aimed at promoting food security or composting.
The commitment to support the community vision also aligns with work KEPO is doing to create a community-wide vision on how to protect Kahnawake’s environment. An advisory group to be led by community members from all walks of life will be responsible for drafting the visioning statement.
“One of the big goals continues to be what we have in the coffer for legislation,” Montour added, mentioning work underway to get two environmental protection laws passed in the community, which includes a general one and another targeting the St. Lawrence River.
There’s still a lot of work to be done before Kahnawake sees the laws passed, he said. They still need to be drafted, which can only happen through the Legislative Commission and its Community Decision-Making and Review Process (CDMRP)
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“Hopefully by the end of this term we’ll have them in place,” Montour said.
