Our Mission and Introduction

The Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nation exists to achieve the advancement of our people.

In light of the Mission of Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nation (QFN), our member service standards are centered on the following principles of member service: clarity, openness, accessibility, and accountability.

The member service standards of QFN must also reflect increasing complexity in operations across the Nation and a truthful reflection of how long things actually take.

Our Standards

General Principles

• We will be courteous and treat you with respect every time you contact us.
• We will strive to protect you along with all members, staff, and representatives from harassment and harm.
• We will protect and treat with care the information you provide us with in the process of serving you.
• We will strive to serve you promptly on every visit to one of our offices, knowing that this is sometimes complicated by many requests and needs.

Openness

• When you visit a QFN Office or call us, staff members who take care of your needs will identify themselves by giving you their name and role within the Nation.
• We will provide information on our website and telephone directory about how to contact our departments.
• We will always strive to make our correspondence easy to understand, in plain language where possible, and include information on our name, role, and contact information within the Nation.

Response Times

• We will always strive to:
  • Return your call;
  • Respond to your email; and,
  • Connect with you as best we can.
• We intend to respond to all types of inquiries within fifteen (15) business days of the date we receive your inquiry.
• If for any reason we cannot reply with a substantive answer to your inquiry within that time frame, we will acknowledge it and advise you of the length of time we believe it will take before we are able to respond to your questions fully.
• We also wish to be clear that complex questions and inquiries often require complex research, review, and solutions. We will do all that we can to answer meaningfully when we can, even if that means an answer must take longer to provide.
• There may be specific circumstances that prevent a full answer on specific issues or we are simply not the place that holds that knowledge. We will endeavour to be clear about these matters, as soon as we are able to.
• Some requests may require action from your Council or other departments within the Nation. If this is the case, we will give you an explanation and an estimate of time required to make a decision.
• Replies to inquiries will be made in a format based on operational realities and in a fashion that complies with this wider Standard.
• Inquiries that we believe —in good faith —are intended to harass, dox, threaten, or intimidate any staff or representative of the Nation will not be responded to, despite the above.

Appointments and Accessibility

• If you attend a QFN Office, we will always strive to keep our appointments with you and keep any delay for only up to five (5) minutes.
• If you attend a QFN Office, we will always strive to keep access to our offices, meeting rooms, and spaces as barrier -free as possible. We are always working to improve accessibility within our spaces and will continue to.
• If you are attending a QFN Office and we are faced with an emergency, we will strive to keep you, our members, our staff, and our representatives safe.
• If a QFN Office is closed for any reason, we will strive to get prompt messages on available communication channels in the given circumstances.
• If a QFN Office’s accessibility features fail, we will strive to get prompt messages on available communication channels in the given circumstances.

Inclusion and Welcome

We are an inclusive Nation that seeks to serve all our members from our youth to our elders. We are fiercely committed to supporting members who have historically been underserved or faced barriers to access, so – for example – if:

• You are a woman, non-binary person, two-spirit, and/or LGBTQ, we will strive to always make you feel welcome in our offices and spaces.
• You are a disabled person, we will strive to always advance access and welcome you into our offices and spaces.
• You are unhoused, we will strive to help where we can and advocate for all that we can.
• You are seeking support from the Nation, for whatever reason, we will welcome you without judgement and with an eagerness to build solutions together.

And—while we have a principle responsibility to our membership, our members’ programs, and our members’ services – if you are reading this as a member of another Nation, as non-Status person, or part of the wider communities in which we live:

• We will always have an open door for you.
• We will always strive to support you, in solidarity.
• We will never turn our back on our duty to the wider Mi’kmaq Nation and to all

Accountability

• If things go wrong, you are entitled to a full explanation and an apology.
• We will provide a Service Assessment Survey form in our office and on our website, for you to tell us how we did and how we can improve our service.

Our aim is to provide the highest standard of service to our members. If at any time you feel that your needs have not been met and you are not satisfied with our service, you may contact: communications@qalipu.ca

These member service standards are published on our website, in our membership material, and are contained in our staff orientation to communicate these standards to our members and to reinforce them with our employees.

There is a clear presumption that our service will progressively improve as our operations become more efficient. The plan will be reviewed and updated periodically as we gain more experience with it and as we compare our service to that of other First Nations and services in the wider community.

For more information on QFN, you can reach us through our contacts page: https://qalipu.ca/about/office-and-e-mail-addresses/