Canadian Government Executive - Volume 24 - Issue 04

12 / Canadian Government Executive // July/August 2018 ibility and allowed me to transition into many different roles. After being in Ottawa for three years at AAFC, I did a short assignment with Dep- uty Minister Len Edwards, and he asked me what I wanted to do at the end of the assignment. I said, “You know, I’m enjoy- ing the Ottawa experience, and I’d like to stay.” So at that point, he agreed that he would sign me over into the federal sys- tem, and I immediately went on French language training. The French training process was very challenging for me, and I know that a lot of my Indigenous col- leagues struggle to meet this leadership requirement in Ottawa. It can be a major barrier in the federal service for Indige- nous employees and leaders. Developing a competence in the French language was tough; I would say it was even compara- ble to my PhD studies. Thankfully, I was able to achieve my levels, and at the same time, I was accepted into an executive development program with the federal government called the Accelerated Ex- ecutive Government Program, or AEXDP. AEXDP provided me the opportunity to work in many different departments in Ottawa – to gain leadership experience in other federal departments, learn new leadership skills, and most importantly, build a strong network of executive col- leagues. Coming from the Northwest Territo- ries, our government is a lot smaller; there are positives and negatives to this. The accessibility to your employees and your executive colleagues is far greater here in the NT, and it is far less bureau- cratic than Ottawa. But working on na- tional programs for the betterment of the country was very fulfilling and made me proud of our achievements as pub- lic servants. The AEXDP program really exposed me to the skill development re- quired to be a public service leader and built my confidence to network with oth- er executives. While part of the AEXDP, I was able to work on national Aboriginal skills and employment programs at HRSDC and managed a very large corporate manage- ment team, which taught me the impor- tance of delegating roles and responsibili- ties but always assuming accountability for my team and their actions. After these roles at HRSDC, I had a short assignment at Indian and Northern Affairs in First Na- tion Education. I was then approached by Gavin Liddy, who was the Assistant Sec- retary, Economic Sector, about an offer to gain experience in a central agency of the Government of Canada. It was at that time that I accepted a role with Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) in the Economic sector. This leadership role allowed me to further understand the machinery of government in Ottawa and also allowed me to participate in some decision-theory aspects of science-based departments. While the TBS experience was very posi- tive, it did highlight to me my preference to work in a line department role. After a few years at TBS, I accepted a role at National Defence where I was asked by Cynthia Binnington – an esteemed fed- eral Indigenous executive – to work in the human resources field, but this time in staffing, as well as learning and train- ing. I had previously sat on various In- digenous committees over the years with Cynthia, and I felt like it would be a great fit to learn from such a great leader. As a lifelong learner, learning and training has always been a passion for me, so I thought it would also be very interesting to learn the civilian and military sides of govern- ment and the dichotomy of that relation- ship. My experience at National Defence did not disappoint, and I valued the op- portunity. In all of these leadership roles, it was my experience of using mentors and leader- ship coaches in AEXDP that really helped me to adjust to the various organizational My first real leadership position in government was working as the Director of Policy, Legislation and Communications for the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs in Yellowknife. This position really provided me with great insight into where we, as a territorial government, addressed land claim and self- government agreements with Indigenous governments and organizations. INTERVIEW Photo: DND