Essential Elements for a valid East Side land use planning process:

1.	The East Side planning initiative encompass the lands and waters in natural regions 3, 4b, 4c and parts of 5c.

2.	Appropriate and meaningful participation by First Nation communities.

3.	An ecological base and full technical information to be used.

4.	All records, reports, documents, etc. be accessible and made public on a timely basis.

5.	A clear mission or goal statement, with terms of reference, which states that the most important outcome of the East Side Planning Initiative is a land use plan that ensures the ecological integrity of the East Side ecosystems is preserved.

6.	Definitions regarding land use planning to be enunciated in the Draft Phase One report, and to be part of the framework for this initiative. Such a framework would be clear about all values and objectives for the landscape, communities and waterways.

7.	Avoidance of significant development expansion, new agreements, or license alterations or licenses prior to the planning process. (Such actions prior to or during the land use planning process would create artificial benchmarks and create conflict among developers).

8.	That adequate time, information, and staff resources are available for an independent process that is not housed in any one department or subject to internal government alteration.

BFN / CNF / CPAWS attachment to December 19, 2001 letter to Honourable O. Lathlin

BFN / CNF / CPAWS Recommendations
(response to Draft Phase One Report of November 2001)

A.	Planning before development (see our essential element #7)	

Our Recommendations:
•	The East Side Planning Initiative will ensure planning drives development, as opposed to development driving planning.

•	The land use plan will be created in a step-by-step process, with decisions regarding specific resource allocations and developments being made based on and in conformity with, the plan.

•	Sustainable land use plans must be in place before significant development expansion, resource or land allocations, new agreements, or license alterations or licenses. (see our essential element #7and see COSDI vision at p.6 for the East Side re: planning driving development)

B.	Planning process (see our essential elements #5, #6, #8)

Our Recommendations:

•	The above suggested Phase One, Two and Three planning steps be implemented.

•	The Minister will immediately enunciate the guiding principles for the land use planning process, including:  (see our essential element #5)

•	recognition and affirmation of Aboriginal and treaty rights;
•	the most important outcome of the planning process is the preservation of the ecological health and biodiversity of the East Side ecosystem; and 
•	the plan be created bearing the “precautionary principle” in mind.

•	An independently facilitated planning retreat for all potential participants will be held in the very near future.

•	The planning process will not be constrained by the suggested two-year time limit.

•	Adequate time, information, and staff resources will be available for an independent process that is not housed in any one department or subject to internal government alteration.  (see our essential element #8)

Recommendations specific to Draft Phase One Report model

•	The Round Table and Review Committee as described in the Draft Phase One Report will be collapsed into one working group, which may then establish its own subcommittees and working groups.

•	Two non-government co-chairs will be chosen (Draft Phase One Report Recommendation #’s 5 and 12), who report to the Minister and to the working group or table.

•	No in-camera meetings are permitted (Draft Phase One Report Recommendation #6D).

•	The role of the Review Committee, should it remain, will be clarified so that it truly is an advisory, not a review, committee.

•	Any government committee involved is accountable to the public planning participants.  (For example, the Interdepartmental Working Group as recommended is not accountable to the planning participants)

•	No public planning participant should sit on any government committee (e.g. Manitoba Hydro). Staff from the Phase One team have confirmed that no government staff will sit on any planning table or committee.

C.	Participation by First Nation communities and individuals
(see our essential element #2)

Our Recommendations:

•	All recommendations in Part 7 of the COSDI Report must be recognized, affirmed and implemented throughout the entire planning process. This has yet to be done.

•	The East Side Planning Review Committee, which could have a representative from each First Nation, will actually become the East Side Round Table.  (See Part B – Planning process, page 7)

•	The province will release its First Nation consultation guidelines, and provide a legal opinion outlining how the recommended planning process conforms to the Crown’s existing obligation to conduct meaningful First Nation consultations.

•	One of the explicit Terms of Reference/purposes of the planning process will be to record what each First Nation community believes its existing Aboriginal and treaty rights to be.  

D.	Access to information (see our essential element #4)

Our Recommendations:

•	All records, reports, documents, etc. will be accessible and made public on a timely basis.

•	Implement COSDI recommendations for access to information as they apply to this initiative and any subsequent Plan.

•	A dedicated public registry system containing hard copies of all information, starting at the beginning of the Phase One staff team’s work, will be immediately established. This includes the establishment of satellite registries in all East Side communities.

•	All information pertaining to the East Side Initiative, including meeting minutes, will be placed on the public registry on a timely basis.

•	Participants in the planning process will outline and document their various associations, affiliations and qualifications.

E.	Geographic scope (see our essential element #1)

Our Recommendations:

•	The geographical scope of the East Side planning initiative will encompass the lands and waters in natural regions 4b, 4c, and parts of 3 and 5c;

•	For watersheds to be the basis for the boundaries for the planning area, the planning area should then also include: Bird River / Whiteshell River watershed, Whitemouth River watershed, Brokenhead River watershed, and the entire Upper Nelson River watershed.   

•	The appropriate inclusion of First Nation traditional lands and trapline districts will be determined by the affected communities.

•	A greater emphasis will be placed on planning for waterways, riparian zones and water ecosystem functions.

F.	Gathering and use of technical information (see our essential element #3)

Our Recommendations:

•	Compilation of the information outlined in Draft Phase One Recommendation #51 will begin immediately with the aim of the information (not just a compilation) being made public and available to all planning participants.

•	The carrying capacity for the East Side ecosystem will be identified before the plan is drafted.

•	The cumulative environmental, social and economic impacts of existing developments within the planning area will be determined for use by planning participants.

•	Planning participants will be provided with technical information they request on a timely basis.

•	A full carbon inventory with budgets to show loss or release of carbon, sequestration services, weather mitigation, and impacts or benefits from various land use plan outcomes will be required data/information for use in drafting the plan.

•	The planning exercise should be ecologically based in its information base, and objectives or goals. This goal in the Terms of Reference would state: ‘the planning exercise will ensure the maintenance of all ecosystem function and services and diversity of species at current or improved levels.’ (Species or ecosystems already in decline should not be taken as being a norm, but identified with a planning goal for restoration.)