We are inviting all health managers/directors to fill out the surveys on behalf of the First Nations community you currently work in. You may choose to delegate the task of completing the First Nations Community Infrastructure, Governance, and Wellness Survey to someone else on your team if you feel someone else would be better positioned to answer the questions.

Participation in this study is entirely voluntary. You may:

• Skip any question
• Exit the survey at any time before submission
• Choose to complete only one of the two surveys
• If you decide to withdraw from participation after you have completed the survey but before the analysis and publication of findings, please contact Dr. Amy Bombay at AmyBombay@carleton.ca. Please note that you will not be able to withdraw once the analysis is completed and/or findings have been published.

The First Nations Health Leadership, Workforce Capacity, and Professional Development Survey takes approximately 25–35 minutes to complete while and the First Nations Community Infrastructure, Governance, and Wellness Survey takes approximately 35–45 minutes to complete.

Yes, you will be asked to identify the First Nation community in which you work so that responses can be analyzed at the community level. No individual participants or individual communities will be identified in reports, publications, or presentations. If this survey link has been forwarded to you, your participation is entirely voluntary and requires your own informed consent.

To strengthen the study while minimizing respondent burden, publicly available community‑level census indicators—such as population size, housing repair needs, remoteness, and Indigenous language knowledge—will be linked to survey responses using a secure community code. These data are already published by the Government of Canada and will and will be used only to provide additional context regarding community characteristics, strengths, and needs. If you would like to see the information for your community, you can access the information here: https://geo.sac-isc.gc.ca/cippn-fnpim/index-eng.html

Community identifiers will be stored separately from survey responses in a password-protected file accessible only to authorized members of the research team. In future phases of the project, and only with appropriate First Nations governance approvals and in accordance with OCAP® principles, aggregate community-level data from this study may, in future, be linked with community-level information from the First Nations Regional Health Survey (RHS) or other FNIGC community surveys, but only with the approval of the participating First Nation and the appropriate First Nations governance bodies at that time. Such linkages would allow researchers and First Nations collaborators to better understand how community infrastructure, governance, and wellness conditions are associated with broader community health outcomes over time while respecting First Nations data sovereignty and governance.

Every participating community contributes to building one of the first coordinated national picture of First Nations health leadership, workforce capacity, community infrastructure, governance, and wellness. The information collected will help First Nations organizations identify strengths, support planning, advocate for resources, and monitor progress over time. Your knowledge and experience are essential to ensuring this evidence reflects the realities and priorities of First Nations communities.

While you may not receive a direct personal benefit from participating, Health Directors/Managers will receive any regional and national summary reports that are produced and these can help inform your own planning, decision-making, workforce development, and advocacy. Your participation will also contribute to:

• strengthening workforce development and certification supports;
• informing infrastructure, governance, and service planning;
• identifying structural barriers and community strengths;
• supporting First Nations-led advocacy;
• establishing a national baseline for monitoring change over time.

Analyses of the responses and interpretation of the findings will be carried out by the research team in collaboration with the collaborating organizations. Note that some questions in the survey will invite you to write about your experiences in your own words. If you choose to write any text responses in the survey, we may use your anonymous statements when reporting the study findings (unless you ask us not to afterwards).

We will share all findings and draft publications with all First Nations Health Directors/Managers before public dissemination of the results. Anonymized and aggregate study results may also be shared with regional First Nations organizations (for example, Tribal Councils or other regional entities) upon request. No information that could identify individual participants will be shared.

Some questions ask about community challenges, historical experiences, and health inequities. Reflecting on these topics may cause mild emotional discomfort for some participants. You may skip any question or stop the survey at any time without penalty.

This study is guided by the OCAP® Principles, which recognize First Nations’ rights to ownership, control, access, and possession of information about their communities. The study has been developed and will be conducted in collaboration with First Nations Health Managers Association (FNHMA), First Peoples Wellness Circle (FPWC), Thunderbird Partnership Foundation (Thunderbird), and the First Nations Information Governance Centre (FNIGC).

During data collection and the initial analysis phase, Dr. Amy Bombay and the research team at Carleton University will act as temporary data custodians on behalf of the First Nations partner organizations. Throughout this phase, analyses will be conducted in collaboration with collaborating First Nations organizations and in accordance with First Nations governance processes and OCAP® principles.

Following completion of the agreed-upon analyses, custodianship of each survey dataset will be transferred to its respective First Nations collaborating organization:

• Survey 1 (First Nations Health Leadership, Workforce Capacity, and Professional Development Survey): First Nations Health Managers Association (FNHMA) will serve as the long-term data custodian.
• Survey 2 (The First Nations Community Infrastructure, Governance, and Wellness Survey): First Peoples Wellness Circle (FPWC) will serve as long-term data custodian.

Draft reports and other knowledge products will be shared with First Nations Health Directors and Managers and the collaborating organizations prior to public dissemination. Any future use of the data beyond the purposes described in this consent form, including any future data linkage, will require appropriate First Nations governance approvals and will be conducted in accordance with OCAP® principles.

You do not need to share any personal information with us in order to participate. Although we will ask you to identify your community’s name for analytic purposes, no individual respondents or communities will be identified in reports, and analyses will be conducted only at the national or regional level. Where necessary, data will be aggregated or suppressed to prevent indirect identification of small communities.
After we add additional publicly available Census information about your community to the responses from the online survey, each community will be assigned a secure code. Community identifiers will be stored separately from survey responses in a password‑protected document by the First Peoples Wellness Circle and will not be accessible to individuals conducting the data analyses.

The de‑identified data file will be securely stored at Carleton University under the supervision of Dr. Amy Bombay until analyses are completed, at which point custodianship of the data will be transferred to the First Peoples Wellness Circle for the First Nations Community Infrastructure, Governance, and Wellness Survey and First Nations Health Managers Association for the First Nations Health Leadership, Workforce Capacity, and Professional Development Survey  in accordance with OCAP® principles. Carleton University will retain a de‑identified analytic copy for the period required under university research data retention policies.

Aggregate, anonymized data from this study may be shared with First Nations organizations, such as Tribal Councils, regional First Nations organizations, and other First Nations governance or service organizations. Any sharing of data will require a formal data-sharing agreement that specifies how the data may be accessed, used, protected, and shared. No information that directly identifies individual participants or communities will be shared through these agreements.

Yes, you will be provided with the option to download your completed survey when you are finished. This will make it easier for you to compare your individual to national and regional results.

In appreciation of your time and energy, we will e-mail you a $20 gift card upon completion of each survey that is redeemable at a wide variety of participating Canadian retailers. Your email will be stored in a separate data file from your study responses and will be destroyed once we stop collecting data (within one year). If you withdraw before completing the survey, you will not receive the gift card. If you complete the survey and later withdraw (within the allowed withdrawal period), you will still receive the gift card, provided a valid email was submitted. No partial compensation is offered for incomplete responses.

The study is funded by Indigenous Services Canada and Dr. Bombay’s Canada Research Chair grant funding.

If you have any further questions about the project, what it means, or concerns about how it was conducted, you can contact Amy at AmyBombay@carleton.ca or 613-866-1800. If you have any ethical concerns about your participation in this research, you may contact Research Ethics, Carleton University at (613) 520-2600 Ext 2517, or email ethics@carleton.ca (and reference REB file # 125477).