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Administrative organization to support Indian community development in British Columbia

University of British Columbia

Levels of living in B.C. Indian Reserve communities are substantially below those in the rest of the province. Improvement of this situation requires that maximum effect be derived from the available resources, but small size, scattered locations and diversity of social and economic circumstances inhibit local provision of a high standard of planning and other developmental advisory services. Decentralized delivery of community advisory services is recommended to make specialists available to groups of communities with broadly similar functional needs. The analysis leading to this conclusion begins by outlining the sequence of historical events which have left Indian communities in a disadvantaged position. A two part model of community development is stated. The first part relates community development to placement (location) in an urban/ remote continuum and suggests that external economic conditions greatly limit the range of development options. The second relates development options to factors within the community. The model is tested using data from a sample of communities. The results confirm the existence of significant differences in socio-economic conditions among broad groups of communities, and identify proximity to urban centres as an important factor. Economic development financing is analysed to test the second part of the model. This shows that, in the past success has been related to small scale and local initiative, findings which are attributed to congruence of project requirements with local human resources. Examination of Indian Affairs Branch organization in the light of these findings supports the current policy to decentralize the comprehensive planning function, but two major changes are recommended. The first is to provide a separate service to meet the needs of urban Indian reserve communities in all parts of the province. Secondly, the process of planning by communities should be emphasized over planning for them. It is suggested that the same recommendations are also valid for other advisory services of the Indian Affairs Branch in B.C. A discussion of shortcomings in socio-economic data from Indian communities is appended.

Text

2010-02-26

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/21061

Planning

University of British Columbia

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