Indigenous Peoples Cultural Awareness Training, Level 1

This course will cover BC Indigenous Peoples' history, including residential schools; colonization and its impacts; understanding Indigenous Peoples perspectives - racism, misconceptions, cultural safety; and reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples – respect, protocols, UNDRIP. Includes lunch, materials, and certificate on completion.

Instructor, Kim Cameron

Training provided by BC Infrastructure Benefits Inc.

PDH 6.00 Event PD type: General CE – Informal

Location: Sandman Signature Kamloops Hotel, Pritchard Room

Cost: $200.00 Registration is available here.

Pritchard Room,
Sandman Signature Kamloops Hotel

Ethics for Professionals Workshop, Instructed by Brian Mauza and Rob Kupchanko

Using case studies and examples, this course looks at professionalism, the code of ethics, and the responsibilities of agrologists. The Professional Governance Act and the BCIA Bylaws will also be reviewed. This workshop is a requirement for all new Registrants in the Articling Program, Expedited Admission Program, and as a Limited License Agrologist. Includes lunch, materials, and certificate on completion.

Location: Sandman Signature Kamloops Hotel, Savona Room

Cost: $200.00; as a refresher course - $80.00 | Registration is available here.

Chief Dr. Robert Joseph, OC, OBC of Reconciliation Canada, Keynote Speaker

Chief Dr. Robert Joseph, OBC, OC, is a Hereditary Chief of the Gwawaenuk people, Ambassador for Reconciliation Canada, Chair of the Native American Leadership Alliance for Peace and Reconciliation, and the 2016 winner of the Indspire Lifetime Achievement Award. He has worked with social change leaders around the globe, including South Africa, Israel, Japan, and the US, was Executive Director of the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, and is an honorary witness to Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Qwelmínte Secwépemc Youth Panel

Organized by Tamara Archie, Communications, Community Engagement, Education & Outreach (CCEEO) Manager, Qwelmínte Secwépemc

Tamara Archie is Secwépemc from the Stswecem'c Xgat’tem First Nation (SXFN). Raised in community, Tamara developed land knowledge and cultural practices from her parents, family, and Elders. Tamara's core values are respect, trust, integrity, accountability, communication, and emotional intelligence. These values and beliefs have led Tamara on numerous paths. Tamara lived off reserve for a time before returning to her community as the Treaty Manager, overseeing research, community engagement, and communications.

Tamara also gained leadership skills through her 4-year term on Council for SXFN, where she held the Fisheries & Natural Resources, Social Development, Housing, and Treaty Negotiations portfolios.

Tamara is passionate about learning Secwepemctsín and continues to practice and promote Secwépemc Culture. Outside of the office, Tamara always enjoys spending time with her parents, siblings, nieces, and nephews and continues to explore ways to improve herself in all areas of life, work, and play.

Kate Wale, Intern Program Assistant, Qwelmínte Secwépemc

Kate Wale is a member of Gitxsan First Nation from Gitanmaax, near the colonial community of Hazelton, BC, and has been a humbled guest on Secwepemcúl’ecw, specifically within Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc, for most of her life. After participating in the QS Intern Program in the summer of 2020, Kate stayed with Qwelmínte Secwépemc to continue working and learning with the amazing team and signatory communities. She completed her Bachelor of Arts with a Communication major and a Marketing minor at Thompson Rivers University in October 2020.

At Qwelmínte Secwépemc now, Kate works on the Communications, Community Engagement, Education, and Outreach, or CCEEO team, working as the Intern Program Assistant. She continues to support and work on various community engagement projects while focusing on coordinating and growing the Intern Program. Being a part of Qwelmínte Secwépemc has given Kate invaluable and irreplaceable experience, connections, and knowledge, which has allowed her to fully realize her desire to help build capacity within Indigenous communities and organizations, working with and for Indigenous people in the future.

Qwelmínte Secwépemc is a collective of leadership and technicians from six Secwépemc communities, working together with the BC government to engage across a spectrum of land and resource issues, standing up Secwépemc Rights and Titles, and Law.

Key to Qwelmínte Secwépemc's (QS) path toward reconciliation is the concept of capacity-building. QS developed and implemented our Knowledge Builders Model in response to the severe capacity constraints within our communities and the Province of BC.

Essential to the Knowledge Builders Model and Qwelmínte Secwépemc's principle of capacity building is the Summer Intern Program. The internship is open to Indigenous and non-Indigenous students at the university level.

Those interns selected become active players for transformation in land and resource management, upholding Secwépemc Law, jurisdiction, and governance. This unique and multi-faceted experience supports their professional growth to ensure they will become well-rounded practitioners of the future who can walk in both worlds. Qwelmínte Secwépemc has successfully completed four years of Summer Interns. The panel will bring interns from past years of the program to share their experiences and insights from the program.

*Space is limited; all sessions are subject to capacity.

Indigenous Awareness and the Professional Governance Act

Kate Haines was appointed the Superintendent of Professional Governance in January of 2023. She has served as a member of OSPG's executive team since April 2020, most recently as Deputy Superintendent in the Audits, Investigations, and Performance Management portfolio. In this capacity, she developed and implemented OSPG's performance review program, taking a phased approach to assess how regulatory bodies are already meeting or planning to meet the Standards of Good Regulation.

Kate has over 15 years of experience in the BC public service. From 2009 to 2020, she worked in several operational and policy roles at the Environmental Assessment Office, where she was a key team member leading the revitalization of the environmental assessment process. This work resulted in the passage of the new Environmental Assessment Act in 2018.

*Space is limited; all sessions are subject to capacity.

Waste Reduction Presentation by Marcia Dick, Solid Waste Reduction Coordinator, City of Kamloops

Recycling and diversion initiatives, solid waste management, hazardous waste, landfill gas management. Marcia's primary objective is to develop and implement programs that support the City's long-term goal of reducing waste to landfill by 50% by 20208 and by 90% by 2050.

"Waste is a global issue – about 11 million tons of trash is created every day around the world. British Columbians disposed of an average of 499 kg per person in 2020; that's 1.4 kg of resources that each of us puts in a landfill daily. An enormous amount of energy goes into extracting, producing, marketing, and transporting the stuff we buy. We are consuming beyond what our Earth can sustain. There are many simple things that we as individuals, employees, workplaces, and members of a larger community can do to lessen the impact of our consumption on our planet."

*Space is limited; all sessions are subject to capacity.

Are you interested in touring the City of Kamloops Waste Facility on Saturday, April 22? Register today!

Working with First Nations to Protect Water within the Nicola River Watershed, Patrick Farmer, RPF, P.Ag and Crystal McMaster, Scwexmx Tribal Council

In 2018, the Provincial Government and five Nicola First Nations Communities entered a Memorandum of Understanding to manage water together. Hear an overview of how that work has evolved over the past five years and where the group hopes to be five years later.

*Space is limited; all sessions are subject to capacity.

K'wese'ltken | Community Economic Development + Indigenous Food Sovereignty in Association with Community Futures, Pan West, Government of Canada

Community Futures Development Corporation of Central Interior First Nations Presentation by Bonnie Klohn, Food Policy Lead, Kamloops Food Policy Council

Bonnie Klohn is grateful to be a settler in Secwepemcúl’ecw, and shares a deep sense of roots and responsibilities as a member of a family that has lived on this land for six generations. As part of Klohn's learning journey about what it means to be a co-conspirator in decolonization, in 2020, she completed a Masters of Art Education from Concordia University with a research specialization in Indigenous Food Sovereignty.

Klohn has been involved in the food movement in Tk'emlúps and beyond since 2007 and has had the opportunity to work with CIFN extensively over the past four years on various elements of the K̓wséltkten project, which is a project focused on economic development through food and cultural livelihoods.

Klohn's professional background includes community planning and development, advocacy and food movement organizing, and systems-level change initiatives. She is also the steward of Rabbitbrush Urban Farm and Tannery, which is her backyard garden urban micro livestock operation that includes chickens, rabbits, and bees. She is a natural hide tanner and delights in pursuing her ancestral Scottish and English hide tanning practices, working mostly with local sheep, rabbit, and fish skins to create textiles, rugs, and leather.

CFDC of CIFN's mission is to promote regional economic growth through business development services and training by supporting Indigenous communities and entrepreneurs and remaining linked to Indigenous people's overall economic, social, political, and development. 

To continue growing and flourishing as a corporation, the Community Futures Development Corporation of Central Interior First Nations strives to uphold the business objectives, maintain program goals, methods, and structure, and assist with Indigenous Human Resource and Skill Development that reflect experience, needs and background of our clients and communities and remain linked to the overall economic, social, political and development of the Indigenous people.

*Space is limited; all sessions are subject to capacity.

Consultation in BC: A brief history of why consultation and engagement are required and what is expected. Sonya Campbell, P.Ag

Sonya Campbell has been working as a registered professional agrologist since 1995 for the Provincial Government in the programs of Range Management and First Nations Relations/Strategic initiatives. Starting in 1998 with the Delgamuukw decision, a significant portion of her career has been focused on meeting government obligations with respect to consultation and advancing reconciliation in the Natural Resource sector.

Sonya's journey has taken her down a long path of understanding the history of First Nations in British Columbia and the importance of working to advance the government's evolving reconciliation commitments.

*Space is limited; all sessions are subject to capacity.

Archaeology in BC | Erin Davison, MA, RPCA, (she/her) Stantec, Senior Associate, Project Manager - Archaeology, Office Leader - Quesnel and Shane Bond, RPCA (he/him/his), Stantec, Senior Principal, Environmental Services

Erin is a senior archaeologist, project manager, permit holder with Stantec, and the Quesnel, BC, office lead.

Erin is a Registered Professional Consulting Archaeologist (RPCA) of the BC Associated of Professional Consulting Archaeologists (BCAPCA) with fifteen years of experience supervising archaeological surveys and excavations within the BC Interior and Yukon. She has directly managed archaeological impact assessments for proposed forestry, mining, transportation, and other residential, commercial, and industrial developments in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. Her experiences range from excavating an Irish neolithic henge to Sub-Arctic Thule and historic Inuit research in Nachvak Fjord, Labrador.

Shane is a Stantec consultant, a senior archaeologist, and a subject matter expert. Shane has held various leadership roles at Stantec, including Management Lead, Practice Lead, and National Technical Lead.

Mr. Bond is a professional member of the BC Association of Professional Consulting Archaeologists (BCAPCA) and has twenty-five years of experience supervising archaeological surveys and excavations in British Columbia, including northern, central, and coastal regions of the province.

Shane has also led many full-scale research, excavation, salvage, and monitoring projects. He holds permit status across the province and has authored or edited thousands of technical reports. Large-scale excavations led by Shane have made important contributions to the archaeological record of southern Vancouver Island (Old Songhees Reserve, Esquimalt Lagoon), the Fraser Valley (Park Farm site), and the lower mainland (Glenrose Cannery, St. Mungo, and Nottingham Farm sites). Several smaller-scale excavations have also resulted in significant new information on Vancouver Island (Deep Bay, Qualicum Bay, Ucluelet, and Victoria) and the Central Interior (Babine Lake). Shane has participated as an expert witness in National Energy Board and Canadian Energy Regulator environmental assessment hearings.

*Space is limited; all sessions are subject to capacity.

Evening Event

Dinner is scheduled for 7 PM at Mason's Kitchen & Bar.

The Cowboy Dinner Show with Rob Dinwoodie and his band Open Range will musically entertain guests.

Entertainment, Rob Dinwoodie lives the life he sings about, the cowboy of the west. Rob has been writing songs and entertaining for 30 years, from places like the Calgary Stampede to cowboy festivals and theatres across western Canada. Having been raised around horses and spending a career as a range manager in the Interior of BC, Rob sings what he knows.  

Over the last 15 years, "The Cowboy Dinner Show" in the Okanagan Valley has been a favorite night of entertainment for visitors from around the globe as they enjoy being entertained and told of the cowboy that has been a part of BC history from the early gold rush days.

His band, Open Range, comprises talented musicians and singers Dixon Zalit and Keven Bader, who have woven their unique abilities into a fantastic show that will entertain and educate guests. "It's a mix of humour, education, cowboy poetry, and a lot of fun," says Dinwoodie as he describes what Open Range brings to the stage.

Bus shuttles from the hotel to the restaurant and back will be available.

• Shuttles depart from the hotel at 5:30 PM & 6 PM.
• Shuttles depart from Mason's Kitchen & Bar to the hotel at 8:30 PM & 10 PM.

AGM Opening Remarks and Indigenous Peoples Land Acknowledgment by Freda Jules, Elder/Pipe Carrier on behalf of the Tḱemlúps te Secwépemc Nation

The Tk'emlúpsemc, 'the people of the confluence,' now known as the Tk'emlúps te Secwe̓pemc are members of the Interior-Salish Secwepemc (Shuswap) speaking peoples of British Columbia. The Shuswap or Secwepemc (pronounced suh-Wep-muhc) people occupy a vast territory of the interior of British Columbia.

Tk'emlúps te Secwe̓pemc (TteS) is a progressive community committed to attaining self-sufficiency and independence through education and economic development. The Band has approximately 1,500 members living on and off its 33,000-acre (130 km²) reserve. The reserve supports a variety of uses, including residential, industrial, commercial, and agricultural. In 1999, the TIB purchased Harper Ranch, now known as Spiyu7ullucw Ranch Corporation, which added 20,000 acres of fee simple land and crown leases for resource development and other economic opportunities.

The Band has strengthened its community with childcare, education, and healthcare facilities as well as other initiatives and infrastructure. They have created over 200 direct jobs, generated $200 million in regional economic activity, and pioneered the development of the Indian property taxation authority.

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A listing of past BCIA Annual AGM Reports is available under Public Resources

The 2022-2023 BCIA Annual Report in preparation for the BCIA Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Saturday, April 22, 2023, in Kamloops (hybrid meeting) is now available for viewing. Click here.

AGM: In-person, live stream option

Registration is available here.

City of Kamloops Field Tour

A tour of the Cinnamon Ridge Composting Facility and Mission Flats Landfill (Recycling and diversion initiatives, solid waste management, hazardous waste, landfill gas management). Registration is available here.

Cinnamon Ridge Composting Facility

Mission Flats Landfill

Grasslands Restoration Tour

A Lac du Bois Grasslands hike hosted by the Grasslands Conservation Council of BC.

The Grasslands Restoration Tour of Lac du Bois is hosted by the Grasslands Conservation Council of BC in conjunction with the 2023 BCIA Provincial Conference and AGM. Located north of Kamloops, BC, the protected area was established by BC Parks on April 30, 1996, to protect a unique mixed forest-grassland ecosystem overlooking the North and South forks of the Thompson River.

Registration is available here.

Lac du Bois Grasslands

New Afton Mine Tour

The New Afton Mine is a copper and gold project located approximately 350 km northeast of Vancouver and about 10 km west of Kamloops in the Thompson‐Nicola Region of the South‐Central Interior of British Columbia. The site utilizes several unique mining practices contributing to a reduced environmental footprint, including block caving, thickened and amended tailings, and electrical fleet components.

The tour will include a walk-through of the processing mill and thickened and amended tailings facility, a viewing of the active Afton Pit TSF, and a visit to research reclamation areas on the inactive Historical Afton TSF. Registration is available here.

Please check for special details and instructions for this tour