March-13-2019

This website is intended to be updated regularly by your Chief and Headmen, to share with both on and off-reserve members, the significant developments that are on-going and of which we welcome feedback from the membership.

As you know, we are the only First Nation in Canada that has a Custom and Usage Convention. We have fought long and hard to achieve this and we must protect it.

Our community has worked hard to achieve the following accomplishments in 2018:

• Once again, we have achieved a clear financial audit.
• After four years of negotiation we have achieved an agreement with Wataynikaneyap Power (Watay) for equity in the power project.
• We have concluded a negotiation for a “land sharing” process that will enable our trappers and land users to engage in a process for benefits to individual trappers and land users. These negotiations will be on-going.
• We have negotiated for jobs and business opportunities to work on the construction and operation of the Watay Power project including the 300 kilometers that proceed through our traditional and ancestral lands. The construction phase will be approximately 4 years and then there will be permanent jobs for the operation and maintenance of the line.
• Training will be offered to our band members for the permanent jobs that will be created when the transmission line is operational. Some of the training will be at our new community centre.
• We have had an initial meeting with the owners of First Mining Gold who are proposing the Spring Pole Gold project which is partly located within our traditional territories and which is located northwest of Saugeen and approximately 45 kilometers from Cat Lake.
• We have negotiated a five year “Learn More” Agreement between our First Nation and the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) that will provide annual funding to participate in the process to determine whether we will support or not support a nuclear waste disposal site in the Ignace area. At this point, we have indicated that we do not support such a project but are willing to “learn more” so long as this is not considered “consultation” or in any way a consent to such a project. There will be jobs for our members and also funds available to secure technical assistance so that we will be kept fully informed. The NWMO are intending to identify their preferred location by 2022 and we will have to give our final position by then.
• We have recently authorized a professional appraisal to be undertaken on the Four Winds and store properties at Savant Lake. We need to know whether the business is viable and whether the asking price is reasonable. We appreciate that our band members who live in Savant Lake see this as a good opportunity.
• We are pleased that our community centre is almost complete. We have successfully negotiated $1 million from NOHFC and a further $1 million from Fednor. The total project, including furnishing the building will exceed $4 million. We have also secured a temporary loan from RBC to bridge finance the construction until the funds committed by the governments are released.
• We are exploring the possibility of undertaking a process to acquire additional reserve lands under the Addition to Reserve policy, which could include lands in the Savant Lake and Ignace area.
• We are currently in the process of completing renovations to 4 band houses, and hope to soon have those homes ready to be occupied by members and their families most in need. Our Contribution Agreements with the government does not permit the utilization of government funds for off-reserve housing. However, we will keep you informed as to programs that are available to assist off-reserve members who choose to live away from our First Nation.