Flooding is an issue that affects Canadians across the country, but it disproportionately affects Indigenous individuals and communities. Public Safety wanted to learn more about the kinds of supports that Indigenous peoples living off-reserve might benefit from before, during, and after flood events, with a focus on flood insurance programs and cooperative relocation initiatives. In particular, Public Safety was struggling to connect with Indigenous peoples living off-reserve, and asked KES to organize and facilitate these conversations.

Public Safety identified four main priorities for the project:

• Identify organizations and points of contact supporting Indigenous peoples living off-reserve
• Learn from these organizations and contacts to better understand what kind of programs and supports would help them prepare for, recover from, and prevent future flood events
• Present this information to task forces and committees to help inform decisions about developing flood support
• Help connect Public Safety to these contacts so they can continue to engage with Indigenous peoples living off-reserve as they Public Safety creates programs

Over the course of our engagement with Public Safety, we spoke with nearly two dozen individuals representing more than fifteen organizations and developed two presentations for Public Safety that included case studies, opportunities and pain points, and recommendations from the participants themselves.