Heidi Walker previously conducted research about the 2015 La Ronge wildfires and evacuation. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

gender equity

University researchers invited La Ronge council to join new project

Mar 24, 2021 | 5:00 PM

A delegation at a regular La Ronge council meeting Tuesday invited local leaders to be a part of a university project to promote a gender inclusive recovery to the pandemic.

Project Lead Dr. Maureen Reed, along with Dr. Sherri Andrews-Key and Heidi Walker, introduced council to a proposed project entitled Enhancing Climate Resilient and Inclusive Rural Communities. The project is being developed by a team from the University of Regina, University of Saskatchewan and International Institute for Sustainable Development and is in response to a Women and Gender Equality Canada funding opportunity.

“We are looking for your interest in participating in the project, and the purpose really is to work with a group of people in your communities who have both life experience and professional experience to help us develop a planning tool for climate change and climate adaption,” Reed presented to council.

Reed noted if the funding comes through, it would be a three-year project and involved other partnerships as well. She noted the Meadow Lake Tribal Council has already expressed a willingness to be part of the project.

“We would hire a community coordinator part-time with each of the locations to help with some of the logistics, but we would do work on our end and come to the community to try to identify and create a tool together that’s useful and tailored to local needs and local circumstances,” Reed said.

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La Ronge Coun. Abby Besharah seemed particularly interested in the project and she told the delegation she thought it was exciting. She explained putting a feminist or gendered lens on planning would be appreciated by different ideas being brought forward in the community.

“I want to hear all about it because I think we can do a better job in our emergency planning, in our physical planning, to be able to serve those who are underserved, specifically putting a feminist lens,” Besharah said. “Even though that phrase is interpreted poorly by a lot of folks and I think maybe it will help with the understanding about what it means to put a feminist lens on those policy directions.”

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @saskjourno