THEORIZING CO-PRODUCTION AND COEXISTENCE: A CASE STUDY OF MUNICIPAL-INDIGENOUS PLANNING IN THOMPSON, MANITOBA A Thesis Submitted to the College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts In the Department of Geography and Planning University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon By NOELLE BOUVIER © Copyright Noelle Bouvier, September, 2019. All rights reserved. Permission to Use In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Postgraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this thesis in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my thesis work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department or the Dean of the College in which my thesis work was done. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis. Requests for permission to copy or to make other uses of materials in this thesis in whole or part should be addressed to: Head of the Department of Geography and Planning 105 Kirk Hall, 117 Science Place University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5C8 Canada OR Dean College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies University of Saskatchewan 116 Thorvaldson Building, 110 Science Place Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5C9 Canada i Abstract Given the growing presence of urban-based Indigenous peoples in Canadian cities, the increasing responsibilities of cities with respect to shaping policy, and the shift towards recognizing cities as playing an important role in addressing settler-colonialism, municipalities are well positioned to respond to the current discourses of reconciliation, Indigenous self-determination, and the honouring of treaty relationships. However, the urban planning approaches and mechanisms employed to-date have varied due to the lack of formal responsibilities encoded through policy to guide municipalities, and the diversity of settler and Indigenous geo-political realities. The purpose of this thesis is to better understand the municipal-Indigenous planning approaches that have been undertaken in the community of Thompson, Manitoba, located within Treaty 5 territory and the traditional territory of the Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation, while also contributing to current theorizations of co-production and coexistence. Two planning approaches, the Thompson Indigenous Accord and the Thompson Economic Development Working Group (TEDWG), were analyzed using a framework developed from a synthesis of the literature pertaining to the concepts of co-production and coexistence. Data for this analysis was collected through semi-structured interviews with municipal government and Indigenous governance actors, as well as a document review. While these planning approaches are evidenced as going beyond traditional mainstream settler planning practices, it is also argued that these initiatives were highly subject to the waxing and waning of political will, in addition to other factors which influenced local configurations of power. Furthermore, the meaningfulness and progression of these planning initiatives has been a non-linear process, one that has been associated with the quality of the underpinning relationships and the degree of Indigenous decision-making power. These findings contribute to the development of more equitable and mutual planning paradigms by illustrating the importance of designing municipal-Indigenous planning approaches in ways that account for these factors, such as by facilitating the continuity of interpersonal and organizational relationships in the face of dynamic urban governance processes. ii Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge the research participants who graciously shared their knowledge and time with me. With retrospect it seems apparent that the process of conducting interviews would be inherently personal, and while to some extent I was prepared for this, I was continuously surprised by the candor with which these individuals also shared their personal experiences as both governance actors and community members. I owe a thank you to many of the community members of Thompson who extended their hospitality to me on a number of occasions during my stay. These gestures and ephemeral connections were not only personally meaningful, but they also enriched my understanding of the community. I would also like to acknowledge my committee members, Dr. John Hansen and Dr. Cherie Westbrook, who have supported me, with a special thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Ryan Walker, for his continuous support, wisdom, and patience throughout the entire process. I am grateful for the opportunity to have further developed my understanding of what it means for me to be a settler-Canadian living and making a livelihood within a colonial nation and Indigenous territories. Lastly, this work was made possible by the financial assistance provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada through their Canadian Graduate Scholarship-Master’s Program. iii Table of Contents Permission to Use .......................................................................................................................................... i Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................................... iii Table of contents .......................................................................................................................................... iv List of tables ................................................................................................................................................. vi List of figures .............................................................................................................................................. vii 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 1 2. Literature Review............................................................................................................................. 6 2.1 Land and space: cities as sites of power relations ......................................................... 6 2.2 Urban-based Indigenous governance: self-determination in the city .......................... 13 2.3 Theorizing municipal and urban-based Indigenous governance ................................. 16 2.3.1 Coexistence of political rights in urban spaces ........................................... 17 2.3.2 Co-production of plans, policy, and programs ............................................ 19 2.3.3 From theory to praxis: municipal-Indigenous planning .............................. 20 2.4 Room for growth: a review of the research gap .......................................................... 22 2.5 Mapping the concepts of co-production and coexistence ........................................... 23 3. Research Design ............................................................................................................................ 26 3.1 Case study as a methodological approach................................................................... 26 3.2 Case selection: Thompson, Manitoba ......................................................................... 36 3.3 Semi-structured interviews ......................................................................................... 37 2.3 Document analysis ...................................................................................................... 40 2.3 Data analysis ............................................................................................................... 41 4. Findings: Planning Approaches and Shifting Interpretations of Meaningfulness.......................... 45 4.1 Shaping the municipal-Indigenous interface ............................................................... 46 4.2 The Thompson Indigenous Accord and the Thompson Economic Diversification Working Group ................................................................................................................. 48 4.3 Promising beginnings and perspectives on meaningfulness ....................................... 51 4.4 Shifting interpretations: from meaningful to status quo ............................................. 61 5. Findings: The Importance of Relational Planning Approaches ..................................................... 65 5.1 Meaningfulness and the centrality of political will ..................................................... 66 5.2 Interpersonal relationships, cultural competency, and Indigenous agency ................. 72 5.3 Interest convergence and the limitations of economic rationales for engagement ..... 86 iv 5.4 Symbolic acts as meaningful and tangible commitments as tokenistic ...................... 94 6. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................