COUNCILLOR PORTFOLIO REPORT

Health, Social & CFS

MARCH 2013
Dear Fellow Members In January, we completed one year of our term and we are now three months into our second year. Over this first year, I have learned many things, but, most of all, I have confirmed that I love Berens River and love working with and for our/my people. After we were elected, we met as a Council and were told by our Chief that we would only meet quarterly as a Council to go over the finances and that in between our quarterly Council meetings we were to run our Portfolios, but there is often no money to actually do what we would like to do for our people. The other reality with our First Nation government is that our Chief works with a management company to operate our finance office, so we as Councillors have little say in day-to-day operations as budgets are approved by Council as a whole quarterly. The third thing that affects our finances is that much of the work of our government is given to our economic development corporations (Meemee and Shekonchike) and while we, the Council, are the Board of Directors, our Chief is the Chair and Chief Executive Officer. In other words, our Chief is in charge of everything, which is normally the case in the mainstream corporate world. Personally, I have expressed my disagreement with this system of governance from day one saying that I thought Council should meet on a more regular basis and should be a part of the policy decision-making that is done by our Chief with advice from a management company. A governing system where the political leadership meets quarterly to review the finances would work if we had sufficient funds to meet the actual needs of our people. However, like many First Nation governments, we are under funded in ALL areas of our operations. So, things look good on paper, but there really is no money in the bank because the actual needs of our people cause us to spend more money than we have to operate many of our programs. To deal with this, Ive had some meetings directly with our people to try and learn what youre thinking in my Portfolio Areas, but honestly it seems that our people are not used to leaders meeting with them and they think its political campaigning when really Im just trying to stay connected to those I serve. Now that we are in our election year, Im not really sure what to do and would like to hear what you think. In the first year of my term, I also asked for Council support to fix up the Arena and move our CHESS (Community Health Empowerment Support Services) Program into our arena and that was done. Our CHESS Program is well managed and many of our children, youth and families are using the program and arena. We created a deficit to renovate the arena, but we also created a space that our people are using and love. Another thing I asked Council to support was the demolition of the old nursing station. Apparently our First Nation received money to do this work years ago, but for some reason it wasnt done and the funding was clawed back. So, I asked that we do it now since I saw it as a safety hazard with the big hole full of water. I also asked Council to support our renovating the old 4-bed unit so that we could convert it into a joint Day Care and Aboriginal Head Start Program.

Prepared by: Councillor Joan Jack

03.29.13 Page 1 of 3

However, that project didnt go so well as we ran out of funds because during the project we discovered that the plumbing and electrical had to be redone and that would be very costly. The project is on hold until we can find funds. In the meantime, as soon as we took security out of the building, our own people started breaking in and destroying the property and then our own people even went in there and took everything out. So, Council decided we are going to try and fix at least one bathroom and kitchen area so that we can move a family in there to temporarily look after the place until we get more money. Here again, we created a deficit, but Im sure the next Chief and Council will continue to work to make sure that building is used for the benefit of our whole community. Overall, it seems that our First Nation government cash flow has been negatively affected through our involvement with the East Side Road Authority (ESRA). Ive asked our Chief to write a report to our people to explain, in general, how we have acquired assets and how the finances associated with the ESRA were spent. Go to this link for more info: http://www.eastsideroadauthority.mb.ca/economic_dev.html Ive tried to get an understanding of what happened by attending four short meetings with the ESRA, but those meetings didnt help me understand what has happened here in Berens River historically and internally within our own government as it relates to this project. In the final months of my term, I am going to continue focusing on working with our grassroots people in the areas of Health, Social and CFS. In Health, I want to work on Family Violence as we are suffering. I also want to continue working on improving our land relationship through traditional foods and medicines. Our Chief has also moved ahead with a Traditional Land Plan Project and that is good. Im going to continue working on home grown, picked or hunted foods and medicines and anyone who wants to work with me is welcome to get in touch. We have a high diabetes rate that is directly linked to what we eat and many of our losses can be prevented through healthy lifestyle choices. We need to teach our children when they are babies and toddlers to eat healthy because too much candy and pop at a young age contributes to diabetes when older. Sugar addiction starts at a young age! Another thing I want to keep working on is starting a Justice Committee or some kind of Community Conflict Resolution Process as a part of our healing as a community. Since the whole Council met with the RCMP, Ive continued to work closely with our people and the RCMP to help improve safety in our community through reduced alcohol, drug and substance abuse. It is good to see the RCMP in our community 24/7. However, there are still some people that continue to sell alcohol, drugs and solvents to their own people and that hurts me and Im sure it hurts many others. I know how hard I had to work to become healthy, one day at a time, but I can tell you straight that my life is much better without alcohol and drugs. It is our behaviours that are the problem and we are all still members. People should drink responsibly. In the area of Social Programs, the Harper government (federal government) is bringing the same welfare rules onto the reserve as there are off the reserves. So, I will be helping our staff to make sure that our people understand the new rules. It is not our Social Programs Administrators that are making up these new rules and it is not me either; the new rules come from the federal government which is where we get the money for welfare. If you go to this link, you will find the new form and see for yourself how much information is required in order to qualify to received income assistance (welfare) http://fnsds.org/files/SA%20Forms%202010/05-901-27Application%20for%20Social%20Assistance-D.pdf And, like Ive said before, when the government checks our files and they find mistakes, they make us pay the money back that we gave to our people because they didnt qualify. In CFS, our Council supported our Chief to lead the creation of a remote communities agency and I went to one meeting with him and another meeting with SECFS, but didnt make it to the last meeting so I dont know where this project is at right now. In my opinion, when an elected leader wants to know something about program policy (how a program operates), in any area, it is not political interference; it is political accountability and transparency.

Prepared by: Councillor Joan Jack

03.29.13 Page 2 of 3

It is often the case all over the world that bureaucrats (those working in administration or programs) dont want to be accountable to those elected by the people. But the political reality is that leaders are supposed to set governance policy based on direction from the people who elect them, and then leaders are supposed to ensure that the workers (administration) are doing the work that the people want done. In CFS all over Manitoba, however, CFS Agencies have been created by the provincial government as corporations, like Meemee, and these corporations are not accountable to our leaders. So, we the people, through our elected leaders are not in charge of looking after our children the province, corporate agencies and bureaucrats are in charge of our kids and we have to get them home and we hope we can better serve our people through a corporation that represents remote communities. In other areas, like Housing, Public Works, Gaming/Funerals and Education, Ive done my best to work with the Councillors. In Housing, when people call me, I either email or call Roland to let him know or just refer people to Roland because housing is his area. In Public Works, for example when Hartley goes to his trapline on some weekends, which I think is great; I email him when people call for water or sewer so that he gets their message as soon as he gets back. In Gaming and Funerals, Ive supported Council in re-establishing the Gaming Commission and Gaming is helping with Funerals again. I also helped out with the last two funerals when George was out of town on other business. With education, thats been a big one. Since early December, the events at our school have taken a lot of my time. Ive spent a lot of time chasing information and Ive organized community meetings and then supported Gerald as the meeting Chair. I also assisted Gerald in doing the last Update. Ive worked as a part of our team with our goal always being safety and what is best for all of our people. I recently attended a Public Meeting at the school where parents and grandparents expressed their concern about the education of our children next year and in years to come. I too would like to know what our plan is as a community and assume that our Chief and Gerald are looking after this matter at the political level. I know that Frontier wrote a letter saying they were gone because their demand conditions were not met. All I know is that there are approximately 350 children in our community that will need to go to school this fall and I think we should be talking as a community about our concerns because our Chief told Frontier when we met with the Frontier Board that the decision is up to the people and he mentioned putting the decision to a referendum. In preparation, I plan to attend the next community meeting and will be doing some writing on informed political deci sion-making for you to think about as you consider this and other matters in our community. Most recently, in relation to informed decision-making at the administrative level, Council has asked our Health Director to work as our Management Action Plan Manager without extra pay so that we can improve our overall efficiency as a First Nation government through accountable and transparent administrative decision-making. Our Management Action Plan is currently being developed for this fiscal year and we are going to do our best to reduce our deficit while still providing quality services to our people. In closing, I say Miigwetch for reading my report and I am also posting this report on my Facebook page. I know not all of you use the computer, but many of you (young and older) do use the computer and I know this because we are having private conversations through Inbox! And, many of you reach me wherever I am by sending me an Inbox message. I also post information to my Facebook page when I attend meetin g right while Im at the meeting and I know many of you are following along. If you visit my Facebook page, please share what you learn with others in your family that may not have or use a computer. So, this is what Im thinking of doing for the remainder of my term and Id love to hear from you about whatever you are thinking! Finally, Ive said I simply because this is my report!

Prepared by: Councillor Joan Jack

03.29.13 Page 3 of 3