Council Meeting Briefing
December 2014
The December Council meeting agenda included items such as:
· Council has been reviewing the water contract with the Town of Hantsport and has received assistance from the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs and Dalhousie University on drafting a new contract.
· Council met with a representative from the First Nations Tax Commission regarding the collection of taxes from corporate entities such as Nova Scotia Power. Council had agreed to look into this and has tasked the Glooscap First Nation Economic Development Corporation to move forward. This will not impact the community members.
· Chris Googoo presented on the Mi’kmaq Economic Development Strategy to ensure Council is aware of the structure and intent and will eventually support the resolution to move forward with the Assembly of Nova Scotia Chiefs.
· MPIC (Mi’kmaq Project for Innovation and Collaboration) presented to Council on the work they are doing. Their intent is to get the communities to collaborate on projects to make the best use. Some of the projects they are currently working on include: First Nation Snowboarding (Glooscap is taking part in this) and the Find Your Inspiration program. They are looking into many more including agriculture endeavours and job shadowing for students.
· Amendment to the Human Resource Policies accepted by Council. Members of the administrative staff will need to take an unpaid leave of absence from their position with Glooscap First Nation if they wish to run for elected office (federal, provincial, municipal and Band) to ensure no conflict of interest. If elected they must resign within 2 weeks, if they are not elected they will return to their position.
· General Administrative Updates: Development of the Capacity Development Plan for Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. It contains 4 different Professional and Institutional Development Proposals for the next three years. These proposals in order of priority are: (1) Create, Implement and Understand a Glooscap First Nation Information Management System (2) Development of a Glooscap First Nation Membership Code (3) Create a Knowledge Base for Glooscap First Nation Regarding Lands Management (4) Council Training on Governance. Due on December 20, 2014. / Working on a submission to Canadian Heritage to Host a National Aboriginal Day Celebration in the community. Due January 15, 2015. / Interpretative Panels Project: Second Community meeting to review the story and the artwork on December 11, 2014. / CMHC Application: the plans from the engineer have been forwarded to Shirley Lundregin at CMHC for consideration. She also assisted in revising the application. / Review and Revision of the Band Regulations: Amanda traveled to Sackville New Brunswick to review the survey with Lori Ann and also provided advice on how Council meetings generally happen now. / Long Term Care Facility: the report will be completed and presented sometime during the week of January 12-16, 2014. Initial reports look like the report is favourable. Amanda did a small demographic analysis for the consultants. / Water Tank progress: Amanda is meeting with Matt Mahoney on Friday, December 12, 2014 to review the construction site to get a better understanding of the project. We advised them that the timber cannot be removed from the reserve as per the Indian Act. They are leaving it and we must pay someone to move it to the top of the hill. Council will need to develop a criteria around community members who are requesting it. / We are administering a project through First Nations and Inuit Health Branch educating health centres and preparing them to become custodians of health information under the Nova Scotia Personal Health Information Act. The project will be completed by the end of the fiscal year. / CMM received funding from AANDC to come into each community and assist 10 Elders in drafting their wills. They need to complete the work by the end of March so we will probably be hearing from them soon to set up some times and get some names of Elders in need of the service.
· Glooscap First Nation Economic Development Corporation (GFNEDC) came to present on their work. There are some changes in staffing at the Store, there are employees who are being cross trained for the store and the gas bar.
· Elizabeth Murphy from the SPCA presented to Council on the services that they are able to provide in terms of animal control. Council will review the options and work with the SPCA on providing services in the community.
· Update on the social case: Naiomi Metallic from Burchell’s presented. AANDC currently conducting comprehensive study of the impacts of the federal ‘compliance’ with the 1964 Treasury Board Directive. The studies are happening with the respective assemblies. They will be coming into the communities to do surveys with the SDAs to understand the gaps, the needs etc.
Record of Decisions:
· Social clients to get additional funds for the holidays. This comes from Own Source revenue.
· Glooscap to enter into the First Nations Tax Commission to start collecting taxes from corporate bodies on the reserve (i.e. Nova Scotia Power) Council has tasked the GFNEDC to move forward on this.
· Amendment to the Glooscap First Nation Human Resource Policy “For a staff member to run for elected office (federal, provincial, municipal or Band) they would need to take an unpaid leave of absence from the day that they declare their candidacy. If they are elected, they must resign their position within 2 weeks of taking office. If they are not elected, they can return to their original position within the band with no penalties. (i.e. reduction in hours, salary etc.)”