What does an Implementation Officer do?

Meet Ta’an Kwäch’än Council’s Implementation Officer, Barb Joe

Not only is she a full-time Implementation Officer, but she also plays a number of other roles on boards and councils created by First Nations or through the Final and Self-Government Agreements. She is an administrator for the Kwanlin Dün First Nation Judicial Council (part time), Chair and temporary administrator for the Champagne Aishihik First Nations Trust (part time), Chair of the Yukon Dispute Resolution Board and a board member for the Kluane National Park Management Board (where she was a former chair).

What does an Implementation Officer do?

A big part of Barb’s full-time implementation work with Ta’an Kwäch’än Council is information sharing: she builds community and educates members of the First Nation about implementation activities under their Final Agreement. She is involved in meetings and negotiations related to financial transfer agreements, administration of justice and the transfer of programs and services from the federal and territorial governments to Ta’an Kwäch’än Council.

What inspired Barb Joe to want to work with the Agreements?

Barb’s career path was inspired by examples in her community and her family role models. Barb’s maternal and paternal great grandfathers and her paternal grandfather were all chiefs. Commitment to government was something she also heard about and witnessed as a girl growing up in Klukshu. She would “listen to Harry Allen, Dave Joe and Paul Birckel talk about life on the road as they balanced leadership with hunting, fishing or harvesting.” Her aunt, Margaret Commodore (Joe), who was active in the Yukon Indian Women’s Association and Yukon Association of Non-status Indians, also mentored her.

Barb also worked for the Yukon Association of Non-Status Indians and the Council for Yukon Indians when she was very young. She witnessed many great events taking place in the Yukon. The events, people and history being made inspired her to seek post-secondary education with a bachelor’s degree from University of Alaska and a law degree from University of Victoria. The degrees allow her to move between interpreting agreements to discussing rules for arbitration to applying the principles of administrative justice.