DEI Task Group Meeting Highlights – January 11, 2022

  • Task Group member Yusra Osman, RSW, read a Land Acknowledgement and provided reflections on her own learning and experiences with respect to Reconciliation and the land.
  • Chair Sanjay Govindaraj, RSW welcomed the Task Group members to the meeting.
  • Task Group member Sandra Southwind, RSW set the intention for the meeting.
  • The minutes from the November 23, 2021 meeting of the Task Group were reviewed.
  • The Task Group reviewed additional proposed amendments to the Action Plan to Increase Engagement with Indigenous Communities and recommended that the revised version be forwarded to Council for its consideration.
  • As part of its recommendation regarding the Action Plan, the Task Group also recommended that Council consider the creation of an Indigenous/FNMI Task Group, advisory/reference group or committee.
  • The Task Group piloted the Equity Tool which it had considered at its last meeting, and to which revisions had been made on the basis of feedback, in relation to Bylaw #1 – General. The Task Group recommended further revisions to the Tool on the basis of the pilot, and further discussed how the Tool might be used by the Task Group.
  • Sandra Southwind, RSW closed the meeting with a smudging ceremony to purify the mind, spirit and physical surroundings.