A Strategic and Community Planning Analysis of Musqueam First Nation's Community Centre

The development of Musqueam’s Comprehensive Sustainable Community Development Plan (CCP) tells the story of Musqueam First Nation. In development for over four years, the CCP is built on Musqueam values and it provides the community and its leadership with direction and guidance on how the community develops. An award-winning plan it has set the standard for effective, responsive and integrated community based strategic planning. It will assist Musqueam to become a self-sufficient, self-governing Nation and a complete and healthy community. This paper will focus primarily on one component of Musqueam’s CCP, the development and implementation of Musqueam’s new Community Centre. A key principle of the CCP was that internal capacity building and development of planning tools were integrated into the strategic plans of Musqueam’s administration departments. This means departmental strategic plans; work plans and budgets were linked and coordinated with CCP community objectives and actions. Before the Community Centre was identified as an actionable item, strategic plans and budgets were developed, identified and considered in detail before action was taken on construction. The following analysis will examine the set of circumstances around the goal of creating a Community Centre with the ability to generate revenue for Musqueam’s facilities while maintaining a connection and balance to the deeply held principles and values espoused in the CCP. Ultimately, the paper will provide a framework for balancing the dual purposes of the Community Centre within the 3 context of the CCP and the need to create a sustainable revenue-generating asset in order to cover the costs of maintaining the facilities.