Planning Practice & Reconciliation Committee

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PIBC's Planning Practice & Reconciliation Committee

The PIBC Board tasked a working group with developing and recommending relevant and achievable strategies and actions for PIBC to respond to outcomes from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) Report. As a result of initial work and member feedback, the Planning Practice & Reconciliation Committee (PPRC) was formed.

The PPRC is at the beginning of this process; the Truth stage of its work. The first step is hearing about Indigenous experiences with planning and planning institutions. In order to undertake this work of listening, the Working Group will be engaging First Nations and First Nations groups throughout BC and the Yukon and asking them to share their truths about planning. They will be listening to these truths as representatives of the planning profession and will provide the Board with recommendations for moving forward. The Working Group will also explore other Reconciliation Approaches undertaken by other organizations including the Canadian Institute of Planning, Architectural Institute of BC, the Law Society of BC and others.

In order to undertake this very important work, the PPRC has requested that the PIBC Board supports its role as representatives of the planning profession by confirming:

  1. Our formal role as representatives of PIBC who are asked to seek Truth on behalf of the Planning Profession in BC and the Yukon;
     
  2. PIBC’s commitment to our thesis:

    How does PIBC address the TRC and MMIWG, but beyond that, expand to actively decolonize the planning practices in BC and Yukon and support our members in doing this work? How can the Institute undertake Truth and reconciliation in the planning profession?
     
  3. PIBC’s endorsement of the PPRC's roadmap:
  • Awareness of the past
  • Acknowledgement of the harm that has been inflicted
  • Atonement for the causes
  • Action to change behaviour

It is the PPRC's commitment to do things differently, to take things slow and to listen to the wisdom of lived experience that will guide the process. The PPRC committed to providing the Board with a framework for a Truth process for the planning profession in BC and the Yukon by the end of 2021.

  • Click here to read PPRC's most recent activities and deliverables (excerpt from current PIBC Annual Report)
  • Click here to read Planning West article - PPRC Committee Update: 3 Years and Counting (Spring 2023)
  • Click here to read Planning West article - Reflections on the Past & How We Move Forward (Summer 2022)
  • Click here to read Planning West magazine - Indigenizing Planning issue (Spring 2021).
  • Click here for PIBC's free webinars in honour of National Indigenous Peoples Day.
  • Click here to read PIBC's statement on the Kamloops Residential School.

For more information about PIBC's PPRC, please contact Kelly Chan, PIBC Manager of Member Programs & Services.
 

Planning Practice & Reconciliation Committee members

Sarah Atkinson IPWG

Sarah Atkinson RPP, MCIP (Chair)

Sarah lives on the unceded and ancestorial territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səlil̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples.
 
Sarah started Vesta Consultants in 2015, providing development consulting services delivering affordable and supportive housing for non-profits throughout BC. 

Sarah is committed to the work undertaken by the PPRC because she believes, as Canadians, we are not doing enough to repair colonialism's harmful effects, right the wrongs of the past, and decolonize ourselves and our institutions. She wants to be a part of this change in whatever small way she can as a planner and co-create a new planning relationship with First Nations colleagues that respects and is guided by Indigenous planning.

 

Robyn Holme IPWG

 

Robyn Holme RPP, MCIP

Robyn lives and works on the unceded traditional territory of the K’ómoks First Nation (KFN) in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, BC. Robyn has worked as a planner for over 15 years in local government, but has focused on regional planning policy for the last 7 years, working on projects ranging from coastal adaptation planning to indigenous relations. Robyn is committed to developing new planning practices that recognize reconciliation and UNDRIP in transformative and meaningful ways. 

 

Isha Matous-Gibbs


 

Isha Matous-Gibbs

Isha grew up in the territory of the lək̓ʷəŋən People, and now lives in the unceded traditional territory of the K’ómoks First Nation (KFN). She is a Social Health and Well-being Planner with Urban Matters, proud graduate of the VIU Masters of Planning Program, and a UVic Alumni from the School of Public Health and Social Policy. Prior to planning, she worked on the front lines of homelessness in Victoria for 5 years.

Isha believes that planning practice and community wellbeing are deeply connected, and that our profession has an ethical responsibility for the work that we do and its impacts. This includes understanding the role we have played in colonization and deep consideration of how we undo and prevent harms associated with our work.

Bob Sokol

 

Bob Sokol RPP, MCIP 

Bob is honoured to live, work and recreate on the unceded, ancestral, traditional lands of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), səlil̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) First Nations. He is a planner with over 25 years of municipal planning experience in the Portland, Seattle and Vancouver regions.

One of the many exciting aspects of his most recent role as the Director of Planning and Capital Projects for the Squamish Nation is that Bob had to embrace the concept that he was an "outsider" to a much greater extent than at any other time in his career, with a need to listen and learn much from those in his community. While he feels he has much to share and contribute, he also feels he has even more to learn.

Even in the limited time thus far working with the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) Nation, Bob has learned much about how the Indian Act, colonialism and the planning profession have shaped and continue to shape the lives of Indigenous people in BC. This knowledge, along with his experience as a planner, assists him in serving as a member of this Committee with the goal of guiding PIBC's response to the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

J Poole

Jennifer Poole (Student Intern)

Jennifer Poole is living and learning on the traditional unceded territory of the Lheidli T’enneh in Prince George, British Columbia. She is completing an undergraduate planning degree at the University of Northern British Columbia, majoring in northern and rural community planning. With over fifteen years in project management of private-public partnerships (P3), Jennifer is excited to add a planning degree to her skill set and to be a part of the Planning Practice & Reconciliation Committee.

 
 

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