Crossing the River with the Collaborative Leadership Initiative helps Indigenous and municipal governments find a way to form relationships and work together on issues of common concern.
The above video clip is a quick overview of how it works from our first CLI site, located in Manitoba. View the Full Story
Who we are
The CLI is a project of the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources (CIER). CIER is a national, Indigenous-directed non-profit organisation that works in partnership with Indigenous communities to protect their lands and waters and build sustainable communities. CIER specializes in reconciliation that is rooted in their decades of experience working with Indigenous communities and municipalities advancing shared governance and outcomes across Canada that benefit everyone. The CLI is guided by a Steering Committee of six CIER associates with rich and diverse experience in advancing reconciliation and good governance.
The CLI model was developed based on the experience of CLI facilitators Merrell-Ann Phare and Michael Miltenberger in the Northwest Territories leading negotiations of the ground-breaking Mackenzie River Basin Bilateral Water Management Agreements from 2010 to 2016, as well as innovative approaches to collaboration and governance led by Colleen Sklar in the Winnipeg metropolitan region. In 2017, the model was officially first implemented in the Lake Winnipeg Southern Basin, Manitoba, to work with 28 Indigenous and local leaders. CLI Manitoba proved to be tremendously successful, bringing together Indigenous and local leaders to work together, as governments, for the first time in over 154 years. The CLI has since brought successful outcomes to selected sites across Canada.
