The Squamish Nation announced this week that it has filled two new positions designed to strengthen connections between council and staff.
In the June 18 release, the Nation said that France Chinembiri had been working in the role of Managing Director, Nation Services since last October while Chris Mullen is stepping into the Managing Director, Administrative Operations position.
In their roles, Chinembiri and Mullen will oversee and provide strategic direction to 13 departments, which Coun. Orene Askew explained will benefit the Nation as a whole.
"They both bring such a wealth of knowledge and expertise that will ensure we are moving forward as an organization in a really good way, both in terms of our commitment to improving the quality of life for our members, and in driving extensive and sustainable growth of the organization," Askew said in a release.
Chinembiri's experience includes roughly 18 years of policy and strategic direction work, including designing and implementing a primary health care governance framework while with Alberta's provincial government.
Chinembiri served as the Nation's Director of Yúustway Health & Wellness before assuming his current position.
Chinembiri is responsible for nine departments, with his main focus to create a "community of hope." He's taking on the task of inspiring leadership "with overarching goals of making our members' lives better every day as well as making Squamish Nation a great place to work, to make a living and make a life."
Much of Chinembiri's process has to do with engaging community members and determining their needs, which the Nation will do by inviting all members to take part in creating the community plan.
"The process is driven and owned by all community members rather than just small groups," he said. "Comprehensive community planning has great benefits for our Nation. We feel that it will empower our community, it will improve government, and improve teamwork."
As well, he said the process will protect resources and celebrate traditions and culture, while pursuing reconciliation and economic opportunities.
Chinembiri is also seeking to improve how the Nation serves its members.
"We want to innovate the ways we deliver services. We want to innovate the ways our members access those services as well," he said.
In addition to establishing an emergency response team and emergency operations centre while working with the District of West Vancouver and North Shore Emergency Management, communication with members was also central to how the Nation responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinembiri said.
"We responded early and provided — and we continue to provide — substantial support to members on reserve, and off reserve as well," he said.
The Nation sought to identify and meet members' needs, providing everything from meal delivery to rent assistance, protective equipment, cleaning supplies, educational supplies for children and nutritional support.
Mullen, meanwhile, is a member of Manitoba's Gambler First Nation and was also an internal hire, having served as the Nation's Director of Finance. In his time with the Nation, Mullen, who has 15 years of experience as a chartered accountant, helped revamp its budgeting processes in an attempt to create greater transparency, accountability and collaboration.
Mullen's key contribution has been transparency, provided releasing the information does not violate privacy or confidentiality laws.
"I'm very open. This is the information of the people and if we can find a way to get it to them, then I'm going to do that," he said.
Mullen helped open up the budget process, engaging Nation members for feedback and releasing the full budget and a fact sheet, which has been made available online and as a paper copy.
In his director role, Mullen will oversee operations such as human resources, information technology and finance.
Later this summer, he will begin work on integrating the Nation's strategic plan over the next 12 months, putting steps in place to achieve its outlined goals before 2023, the current plan's end date.
The main focus right now, of course, is battling the ongoing pandemic by continuing to provide necessary services.
"COVID has really been a challenge. It's impacted the Nation in many of the same ways it impacts everybody else," he said. "By no means is the Squamish Nation immune to the various impacts it's having. Our people are suffering. Our membership is having an extremely tough time from multiple perspectives.
"In terms of being thrust into an operational role, we've all been put into a position that we're not particularly comfortable with.... And it's during this time, in my opinion, that as a team and as a community, that our grit and our determination and willingness to come together and work through this has really enabled us to manage this quite well."
Before joining Squamish, Mullen worked with communities from New Brunswick to Haida Gwaii and has met with 50 to 100 different chiefs and councils, guiding them on topics ranging from financial management, strategic and business planning, funding agreements, business acquisitions, clean energy planning. He even walked his home First Nation through changes to the Indian Act.
"It's been a really rewarding, interesting and eye-opening experience over the last six years to just see how different communities operate, how culture across the country is a little bit different everywhere you go," he said. "It's positioned me well to be with the Squamish Nation and bring those perspectives."
**Please note, this story was significantly updated after it was first posted to include fresh quotes from both men.
