The Mayor for Ritchot says being part of the Collaborative Leadership Initiative has been an eye opening experience.

Since April of last year, the twelve municipalities making up the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region have been meeting with First Nations Chiefs from the southern area in an effort to build stronger relationships. This includes the RM of Ritchot.

Mayor Chris Ewen says the last year has been filled with meetings and collaboration, allowing them to open doors economically and build stronger relationships between First Nations and municipalities.

"The idea was to get to know each other, get to think of some plans that we can start building on together and bring reconciliation and collaboration to a point where we can continue these partnerships after these meetings," explains Ewen.

According to Ewen, these sort of meetings have not happened since 1871. It was on August 3rd of that year that Treaty 1 was signed between Canada and the Anishinabek and Swampy Cree of southern Manitoba.

"(They) made an agreement between First Nations and the government at the time making Canada essentially a better place together," he says.

Ewen says it is so important to make those initial agreements come to fruition and start doing business together. Further to that, he says with our global economy, Ritchot needs to make sure doors are open for opportunities to come into the municipality.

"I can not stress enough that we're living in an age where if your doors aren't open, you are just going to be shutting any opportunity for future growth in your municipality," he says.

(Mayors and Chiefs received a replica of the original medal from 1871.)Ewen notes the group discussed a couple of initiatives; one being, landfill opportunities. He says when it comes to recycling, Manitoba has one of the worst rates of all provinces in Canada. This group talked about collaborating and creating an initiative where municipalities and First Nations groups can get together and reduce waste. He says another initiative has to do with water and waste water programs.

"I'm very excited about that because the southern area struggles with our waste water solutions," he says.

When the group met Friday, it signed a Memorandum Of Understanding, ensuring it continues working together, even though formal meetings have now wrapped.

Ewen says over the years he has come to believe that it's not what you know, it's who you know. But after being part of the Collaborative Leadership Initiative for much of the last year, Ewen says he now believes it's not what you know, but who you know and what they know.