Chief's Message

A New Lawyer for the Saulteau First Nations will be taking over from Christopher Devlin to deal with Site C negotiations, as well as our Impact benefit agreements and drafting MOU's. Michael J. McDonald is the firm's principal of McDonald and Company and a member of the Peguis First Nation in Manitoba. Their firm has extensive experience in First Nations Governance, funding and grant preparation, strategic planning and Legal negotiation strategy.

We have been talking to different leaders in the past few months from the prairies to the coastal communities who have traditional government structures that they have lived by for 1000's of years. The development of a Governance commitee is underway, and we urge you to get involved. Our Governance development will include the youth, the children and the grassroots community members. Chief & Council are on our second half of our term, and we feel our discussions with Industry and Government are beginning to produce positive results and responses. The Community will begin to see first hand the benefits of negotiations and talks.

A open house and Job fair is proposed in which we are bringing in a service rig and construction equipment so community members can learn about the Industry. Booths will be set up in the gym for community members to participate. Chief and Council will ensure each and every member who is willing to upgrade their skills the opportunity to fulfill the positions required with Industry and the partners we are working with. We will be implimenting a survey for all those who participate, so that we can better serve those who need to be certified through the Learning Centre. There also will be opportunity to work with companies to obtain certification.

We are continuing to more ahead on the firewood issue and guarantee that all needy people in the community will recieve this service.

Site C has been an ongoing battle, and we hope to get more updates in the future on the negotiations. It has been hectic with all the Environmental assessment referrals. There has been more applications for band manager and we will seek to identify the right candidate, which will drastically take the workload off Chief and Council. It has been difficult to find the right candidate with relevant qualifications for this position as stated in previous correspondence to the community. Chief and Council are looking for the for the right candidate who will compliment who we are as Saulteau people.