We're All Settlers

Open During Construction

Sheila Boudreau, Senior Landscape Architect at Toronto & Region Conservation Authority, shares stories of teaching, engaging and opening up opportunities for indigenous youth.

Sheila speaks to us about:

How her experiences have been interwoven to shape what and how she teaches

Taking care of the forest in a free-range upbringing

Why she has embarked upon opening doors for indigenous youth

The importance of the Kairos blanket exercise

The natural connection of earth and land to indigenous stewardship

Making connections with programs that support young women, like Girls Can Too

The success of art interventions for infrastructure such as those in Calgary’s Watershed Plus program

In the latter part of our dialogue, Rob and Sheila offer up different perspectives on low impact development (LID). Rob posed that wide scale adoption of LID would present financial challenges.

Sheila offered up that opportunities exist when you’re “Creating Great Choices” (citing Jennifer Riel & Roger Martin's Guide to Integrative Thinking.) Though not in the final version of the posted interview, Sheila reflected to us in our conversation about the importance of considering the triple bottom line when thinking about LID.

Listeners can find a triple-bottom line analysis of Toronto's Street Tree Standards here and also refer to a report by TD Bank on the economic value of trees.