Sunny LeBourdais is an elected Council member of the Pellt’iqt te Secwepemc Nation (Whispering Pines/Clinton Band of the Shuswap Nation). She believes our greatest strength comes from helping each other, as declared by the Chiefs of the Interior to Sir Wilfrid Laurier in 1910: “These people wish to be partners with us in our country . . . we will help each other to be great and good.”
Sunny has managed and coordinated businesses and projects for the Okanagan, Ktunaxa, and Secwepemc Nations. She facilitates community based development of strategies and decision-making processes which respect the inherent responsibility to manage activities on traditional territories.
She led the corporate restructure as COO for the Skeetchestn Indian Band’s Economic Development Company. She has helped synchronize Secwepemc communities on BC Hydro and private energy projects and given presentations to the BC Utilities Commission.
Sunny worked as Columbia Watershed Coordinator for the Secwepemc Fisheries Commission and as a Policy Analyst for the Okanagan Nation Alliance. She gained invaluable capacity building, communications and management skills as the lead instructor for First Nations Alternative Learning Programs on the Saik’uz and Shalalth/Seton-Portage Indian Reserves.
Sunny developed, coordinated and implemented the Stk’emlúpsemc te Secwepemc Nations Project Assessment Process for the proposed KGHM Ajax Project copper-gold mine near Kamloops BC. Sunny served as an advisor to the Canadian Expert Panel for the legislative review of the Environmental Assessment Process and BC Indigenous EA Implementation Committee lending her experience in Indigenous Impact Assessment and Indigenous Governance. Sunny also led the Secwepemc Nation Building Initiative working as the Governance Director striving to re-build, restore and breathe recognition into Secwepemc laws, jurisdiction and governance systems. Sunny is currently the Director of Transformation for the Qwelmínte Secwepemc Government to Government LOC where she strives to effect change through the development of collaborative inter-jurisdictional processes that give due recognition to Secwepemc laws, traditions, customs and land tenure systems.
Sunny obtained a Master of Science from Simon Fraser University in 2006 and Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Education from Thompson Rivers University in 2001. Supplementing her education with the Ch’nook Aboriginal Management Program (Sauder School of Business/UBC) has further developed her leadership skills and capabilities.
Sunny was elected to the WPCIB Council in February 2022 and is hoping to implement change and transformation through building on her experiences. Sunny lives on the ranch/reserve where she was raised near Kamloops BC with her son Raven and family. She enjoys horseback riding and hunting on her horses as well as fishing in her traditional territory surrounding Clinton, BC.