As we just past our first year in office there is much to report.

Leadership

As Chief and Council we have collectively made changes to the way we govern. A major change was the manner in how portfolios have been assigned. Each member of Council has been assigned a portfolio and within that portfolio they have the sole authority to deal with all matters.

The portfolio structure makes all members of leadership accountable within their designated portfolio. Each member of leadership is responsible to work with their respective Senior Manager in the direction of the portfolio and then reports back to the remaining members of Council on their updates.

Administration

Upon taking office, we conducted an assessment on the Band. We have inherited a number of outstanding financial obligations in the form of numerous bank loans and legal liabilities. In order for us to gain a handle on the outstanding financial obligations that was owed we had to consolidate allsix previous bank loans totaling 2.2 million into one. As a result of the consolidation, we developed and implemented the Debt Reduction Strategy that will assist and guide us in some anticipated lean times. In developing the Debt Reduction Strategy we were guided by the belief that no Thunderchild FirstNation Member should suffer needlessly for financial decisions that were beyond their control. With that in mind, we lengthened the timeframe for the DebtReduction Strategy so that the cutbacks we must regrettably make are done in a manner which will have a less impact upon membership. The Debt Reduction Strategy will be in effect until we achieve our goal in August 2012 when the Band will have a zero debt.

An integral part of the Debt Reduction Strategy was the identification of reducing administrative costs through an efficiency review.This review was conducted internally and there were a number of areas where opportunities were identified to reduce costs and raise efficiencies. One such area was septic services. The Band was contracting this essential service out at a rate of $15,000 – 18,000/month since June 2009. Rather than continuing onin this inefficient manner steps were taken to seek funding to purchase a sewage truck and hire a Band Member. We now expend approximately $2,500/month for maintenance, fuel and wages.

Another area where we have streamlined our activities and made some changes for efficiency was in Boards and Committees. With the exception of the Membership Committee, all Boards and Committees have been dismantled and will be replaced with one Super Board. The composition of the Super Board will be comprised of one Band Member representing each department and/or portfolio area. This one representative Board concept will not only lower costs but will give power to the recommendations and decisions as an integrated, well-rounded approach. A call for interested Band Members will be made with a deadline of February 20^th for representation on the Board.  

We are currently working through some legal liabilities that have been incurred from previous years. This legal liability is the housing contract that was entered into in 2009 with Nu Fab of which the Band is now being sued for failing to pay for two units that were never delivered at a cost of $500,000 which includes interest. Under the contract the Band agreed to purchase thirteen houses of which only two are currently being lived in, two have not been delivered and nine are not livable as a result of deficiencies that have been neglected by both Nu Fab and the previous Band administration.Today we are striving to get five of the nine units past inspection, as four are beyond repair, and the legal suit resolved before there are further legal costs to the Band. Another financial liability in the housing area where countless costs have been incurred is in the purchase of the Escalade homes which was a project of the pervious leadership of 2007-2010. There were eight houses bought in 2009 from Band funds and of the eight only three are currently being lived in and the remaining five are not. The Escalade homes were initially bought at a cost of $87,500/house ($700,000 total) but project costs were not controlled and soon escalated to $1.2 million. The current administration was forced to deal with this project as so much of the Band’s money was already invested and there was no choice but to spend more money to complete the units. Additional funds were accessed from the Revenue Trust Account in the amount of $246,000 to further address the deficiencies. The total cost of the 2009 Band funded housing initiative is now $1.4 million for eight homes or $181,250/house and as there was no budget for the added expense of $93,750/house for the deficiencies, other programs had to suffer.

A major change that we have made is to remove Chief and Council from the administration of the Band. Policy changes have been made and the authority that Chief and Council have had over Personnel has been effectively removed and placed in the hands of the Director of Operations and Senior Management. This change was done in order to have the politics removed from the operations of the Band.

Accountability,Transparency and Communications

In order to run a transparent government, we have opened our Chief and Council meetings for general membership to attend and observe. As well, in the area of effective communications we have been modernizing our radio station which will enable us to broadcast any respective updates we have made either collectively or individually within our portfolio areas. Also in the area of effective communications, we will be distributing monthly newsletters to the community.

Look to our website for regular postings and updates from Leadership and Administration.

Going Forward

I want to report that we have made positive strides in moving the Band forward since taking office. We have dealt with the inherited financial debt through the development of the Debt Reduction Strategy, made changes to be more effective in our administration, successfully hosted the Saskatchewan First Nation Summer Games and our annual pow-wow and have moved forward in amending our day to day administrative activities to reflect a more accountable and responsible government. 

Miyo kisikansik