Offering planning support for truth telling and tourism
The challenge
Fort Battleford National Historic Site sits at the crossroads of difficult history and modern tourism. The site has been part of Parks Canada’s truth-telling efforts since 2018, but staff and partners needed help turning those lessons into a practical path forward. They had working group ideas, community expectations, and a new emphasis on reconciliation—but no clear sense of which strategies would actually take root within the Fort’s capacity. The challenge was to sift through competing ideas and help staff see what was feasible, impactful, and timely.
My approach
I structured the work into four phases. First, I revisited the 2018 visitor experience strategy and distilled the “lessons learned.” Then I reviewed the working group’s new ideas, flagging which had promise and which needed recalibration. From there, I facilitated a stakeholder workshop on-site: two hours of frank conversation about truth telling, community priorities, and the real-world constraints of staffing and budget. Finally, I synthesized everything into clear next-step recommendations: short-term wins, design directions, and ideas for broader community engagement.
Lessons learned
Even the most storied historic sites can get stuck between ambition and capacity. At Fort Battleford, the successes came not from generating new ideas but from helping the team see the best of their existing ideas in a sharper light. Strategic planning isn’t about piling more on the table—it’s about choosing what matters most, right now, and giving staff the confidence to act.