northern shuswap tribal council annual report€¦ · northern shuswap tribal council annual report...

2012-2013

NORTHERN SHUSWAP

TRIBAL COUNCIL

ANNUAL REPORT

2012-2013

Cover Photo:

Front of the Northern Shuswap Tribal Council

#17 South 1st Avenue: Williams Lake, BC

Northern Shuswap Tribal Council Board of Directors

MIKE ARCHIE BOARD CHAIR

ANN LOUIE VICE CHAIR

BEV SELLARS TREASURER

DAVID ARCHIE

SECRETARY

Our Vision Statement The Northern Shuswap Tribal Council an NStQ organization in unity and collaboration with the member communities will build capacity and equity by providing education, training, cultural, political and economic opportunities while respecting and preserving the cultural and environmental values of the communities

Our Mission Statement Northern Shuswap Tribal Council is a community based organization that provides advisory and support services to its four communities to preserve and promote Secwepemc culture and history and to assist the communities to achieve their vision for self determination”.

Our Guiding Principles 1. Respectful in our internal/external dealings 2. Provide quality service to our member Bands 3. Accountable to member communities, and funding sources 4. Cultural incorporation in daily practice 5. Open communications – transparency 6. Work cooperatively with other First Nations, Federal and Provincial governments

Contents MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR ___________________________________________________________________________ 5

NORTHERN SHUSWAP TRIBAL COUNCIL STAFF _____________________________________________________ 6

THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS' REPORT _______________________________________________________________ 7

TREATY ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ 8

FISHERIES ______________________________________________________________________________________________ 10

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR ____________________________________________________________ 12

INDIAN REGISTRY PROGRAM ________________________________________________________________________ 15

ABORIGINAL VICTIM SERVICES _____________________________________________________________________ 16

TECHNOLOGY TRAINING COORDINATOR __________________________________________________________ 17

OPERATIONS COORDINATOR ________________________________________________________________________ 19

APPENDICES ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 20

On the way to Dog Creek Xat'sull Heritage Village

Canim Lake The Arbor at Sugar Cane

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

Board Chair, Mike Archie

We must work together: One heart and one mind and one voice.

I am very pleased and honored to serve as the Chair for Northern Shuswap Tribal Council. As the

Northern Shuswap Tribal Council we have been very busy and continue to lead the way developing

Governance Processes, which now include the Common Housing Policy, Employee Policy and Salary Grid, and Human Resource Data Base.

Northern Secwepemc te Qelmucw signed the Secwepemc Unity Declaration with the 17 Secwepemc

Nations to work together in the key areas of housing, social development, health, child and family services

as well economic development and a Human Resource data base. The Secwepemc Unity Declaration also outlines our process and commitment to protect our Aboriginal Rights and Title and land base.

As Northern Secwepemc te Qelmucw we strive for self-determination through developing governance and

decision making processes which reflect the values of our nation in a unified and collaborative way.

Transparency and accountability to our citizenship is paramount.

Northern Secwepemc te Qelmucw have been busy with Leadership Council meetings held on the first Wednesday and Thursday of every month to discuss treaty. I find this very important as there is strength

in unity. There has been the formation of the several committees; Joint Resource Committee, Band

Administrators Committee, Governance to Governance committee, Treaty Managers Committee, and the Technical Working Group as well as the Board of Directors. Our work and process is recognized by the BC

Assembly of First Nations as we have received an invitation to be on the panel to share our experiences creating our Governance Orientation Kit.

Northern Secwepemc te Qelmucw look to the future and the way forward which presents exciting opportunities and challenges. Questions to be answered: What does it cost to run our NSTQ government?

Do we have the capacity? What is the decision making process? What governance structure will look like?

I am very optimistic and very critical and take my role very seriously as a member of NSTQ and as a

council member. NSTQ has been a part of the Made-In-BC Treaty Process since 1993. I received feedback from NSTQ citizenship which proves to be very valuable and important. My role is to follow the

mandate given to negotiate the best possible option for a treaty and the decision will be made by NSTQ Citizens.

NORTHERN SHUSWAP TRIBAL COUNCIL STAFF

Executive Director Yvonne Smith

Financial Manager Cathy Verhaeghe

Operations Coordinator Bonnie Slack

Skills Development Coordinator Cici Sterritt/ Cindy Charleyboy

Aboriginal Victim Services Coordinator Sharon Taylor/ Sarah Hood

Community Services Coordinator Marg Casey

Fisheries Resource Manager Gord Sterritt

Treaty Team Coordinator Allan Tweedie

Treaty Executive Assistant Frieda Belleau

Communications Coordinator Agness Jack

Information Technologist Dave Feil

Contractors

NStQ Negotiator Jim Doswell, Maltwood Dev. Group

The Northern Shuswap Tribal Council offices are located at 17 S.1st Avenue in Williams Lake. Our phone number is 250-392-7361; fax 250-392-6158. Our regular office hours are Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. We close for lunch from 12 noon to 1 pm.

Our website is www.northernshuswaptribalcouncil.com

Our Facebook site is https://www.facebook.com/pages/Northern-Shuswap-Tribal-Council/293408230785226

THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS' REPORT

Our Communities continue to move forward together, creating

the tools needed to be the NStQ Government.

This past year, the Tribal Council worked with the Communities to

create a Governance Orientation Kit. This will help current Band

Council members or those planning to run for Band Council to

better understand their roles and responsibilities and get a better Yvonne Smith

idea of what to expect as a Band Council member. A copy of the Governance Kit and self test can

be found on the NSTC Webpage: www.northernshuswaptribalcouncil.com . Work continues on

the Common Financial Policy and Principles. As well, each Community and the Tribal Council are

setting up common records management systems.

Our Partnership Agreement with Thompson Rivers University allows our communities, through the

Skills Development Working Group, to determine what courses are required to meet education and

training needs. Courses held this past year included Language, First Nations Studies, Management

for Supervisors, Microsoft computer programs and University Entrance Preparation courses, as well

as the 2012 Archaeology Field School.

We are happy to welcome Sarah Hood as the Aboriginal Victim Services Coordinator and sad to say

goodbye to Sharon Taylor who left the Tribal Council after 23 years.

The Citizens' Database is alive and well but we need more participation from Community members.

The Database is an invaluable tool for communication, identifying community needs (education,

housing, health care), and contacting members about important treaty information and voting

events. Please contact your Band Office to find out how you can be involved.

The Fisheries program took a different approach to fish management with the elimination of the

Community Fisheries Representative positions to focus on the technical work as we continue to

increase capacity for the management and preservation of our fisheries resources.

The Northern Shuswap Tribal Council ended this year in a strong financial position (see attached

Audit Report). Plans are in process to deal with Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development

funding cuts for the 2013/2014 fiscal year. We look forward to working together with our

communities on our common goals. Please review the following program reports for a full update

on Northern Shuswap Tribal Council programs and services.

TREATY

Allan Tweedie is the NSTC Treaty Team Coordinator. Boundary issues, communications, economic

development and shared decision making dominated the Treaty Team's work this past year.

1. Government to Government Committee: The Terms of Reference for this committee have

been endorsed by the NSTS Board of Directors. The Government to Government (G2G)

committee is drafting an agreement in shared decision making with the province of BC and

provides common stewardship principles for the territory. The geographic scope of this

agreement will be with the NStQ traditional territory.

2. Agreement In Principle: The Treaty Team continues to work on how to ratify the Agreement

in Principle. The technical committee is recommending a simple majority vote be held in each

NStQ community. The team continues to work on logistics of a referendum when a land and

cash offer is presented.

3. Coppermoon Consulting, communications specialists, were hired to create an NStQ

communications plan to include an NStQ Brand. Coppermoon conducted a survey which

determined the top three values from all communities are:

Healthy children and families

Meaningful education and employment

Protected land and territory.

Coppermoon will continue to work with NStQ to implement priority strategies in the

NStQ communication Plan.

4. Treaty Related Measures:

Ecora Consulting were hired to study natural resource economic opportunities on the

NStQ traditional lands. Funding of $100,000 was received from the federal

government through a Treaty Related Measure (TRM).

The NStQ Government Development Treaty-Related Measure has four objectives:

Governance structure/leadership council development

determination of distribution of treaty law-making authority

Describe Secwepemc values and leadership standards in

Secwepemctsin

Determine community views on governance issues.

Canada provided $100,000 for this TRM

Summary Water TRM - Canoe Creek Study to undertake a water availability study in

the Dog Creek and Canoe Creek watersheds.

Summary Ranch Phase II - Canim Lake and Soda Creek Study

The Canim Lake Strategic Plan calls for securing sufficient suitable land to

meet economic and social development plans for the community.

The Soda Creek study investigated ways Xat'sull can move towards more self

sufficiency in food production and economic development by purchasing an

adjacent long-time operating ranch.

Coyote Sky

FISHERIES

Gord Sterritt is the Fisheries Resource Manager. Funding for this program is through the Aboriginal

Fisheries Strategy agreement with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Additional projects are

funded through various proposals.

The Program mandate is to manage the fisheries resource for the four Northern Secwepemc te

Qelmucw (NStQ) Communities and work towards increasing the community capacity for the

management and preservation of the resources.

The NSTC Fisheries program continued to maintain 3 staff persons for core activities and 5 seasonal

staff (The NSTC Fisheries program also employees 8 catch monitors each season).

Andrew Meshue and Kevin Tenale building the McKinnley Creek Coho Enumeration fence. The fence

allows fisheries workers to live capture Coho, count them, assess their health and sometimes tag

them before returning them to the Creek.

Core activities:

Participation in fisheries related processes and meetings to ensure communication with

NStQ leadership and the NStQ communities is maintained.

Catch Monitoring

Stock Assessment

Partnerships or participation in partnership activities i.e. participation in the Upper Fraser

Commercial Fishing Enterprise, working with UNBC on providing bio-samples for their

programs, involvement with other Universities and FN’s in a large body rainbow trout study.

Beaver Lake Bass - collection of data on the area/range, biological characteristics and

relative abundance

The NSTC continues to promote the NStQ priorities for fisheries management which include being

involved in assessment activities within the NStQ Traditional Territory.

Colton Wycotte and Stephen Meshue doing

a Coho float count on McKinnley Creek.

Fisheries technician, Kevin Tenale dipping

for Sockeye at Sheep Creek

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR

The Skills Development program has been created to address the education needs of the NSTQ. The

program coordinator is Cindy Lynn Charleyboy.

NSTQ- Education

Champions

Cindy Charleyboy Darlene LouieHeather Mckenzie

Michelle Archie

Darlene Louie

Tasks or Projects In-progress Thompson Rivers University Partnership - Working with our Partner TRU-Williams Lake to create a “Competency Based Model” of Education-that will be based on First Nations way of learning and knowing. Education Plan – The Skills Development Working Group (SDWG) meets and assists with the development and planning towards the completion of an Education Plan for our communities for long-term and short-term goals.

1) ISSP 2013-2014 funding for Teacher Education

2) Aboriginal Community Based Partnership Program - bringing educational opportunities into our communities.

Projects completed this year:

Indian Studies Support Program (ISSP) Funding

Secwepemctsín Language Teacher Program ($155,650) Courses delivered this year:

a) FN Language 158-258- Meadow Lake Immersion Camp 2012 b) EDTL 3100, EDLL 3100, EDTL 1510 courses c) FNLG 130 course; FNLG 232/332 course

b) University College Entrance Preparation (UCEP) Program ($44,350)

Courses delivered this year:

d) NAST 500-First Nations Studies e) NAST 600-First Nations Studies f) Microsoft computer program: Time Management, YMCR 5140 (EXCEL), YMCR

6150 (Power Point), YMCR 5030 (Operating System), YMCR 5160 (Access) Added courses delivered:

g) TRU XFNL 0110 – Shuswap and Language course offered through TRU Continuing Studies

h) Shuswap Language and Culture Course-with City of Williams Lake-very positive feedback from 14 City staff

i) Management for supervisors –TRU delivered this 2 week course-33 staff attended from 4 communities and also NSTC staff

j) Microsoft Excel-100 Mile House campus-for Canim Lake

City of Williams Lake Manager of Social Development, Anne Burrill and Shuswap Language teacher,

Victorine Alphonse at the City's Lunch & Learn program.

2012 Archaeology Field School - in partnership with TRU School site:

Back row L-R ,Archaeology student, DJ Sargent, Archaeology student, Anna Chelsea Rob Hyde Front row L-R: Dolores Duncan, Harold Eustache, Robert A. Chelsea

Courses Planned for 2013:

Ethno botany course June 2013 delivery-in community

Immersion course planned for August 2013 at Canim Lake #5-camp

Language teachers

L-R: Andy Chelsea, Juliana Johnson , Cecilia DeRose, Marjorie Kakayetsen,

Phyllis Chelsea, Phyllis Webstad, Elizabeth Pete

INDIAN REGISTRY PROGRAM

Marg Casey maintains the Indian Register for the Soda Creek and Williams Lake Indian Bands and Stswecem'c Xgat'tem First Nation. Funding is provided by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada at a rate of $7.07 for each person registered at these Bands (as of Dec. 31 of the previous year) with additional funding for each event reported (births, deaths, etc.). The total population for Soda Creek, Williams Lake and Stswecem'c Xgat'tem is currently 1,877 so program funding for this year was approximately $13,000.

Please note: these statistics are for events reported to the Indian Registration Office from April 1, 2012

until March 31, 2013. Some events reported may have occurred in previous years, for example a marriage is

2010 that wasn't reported until 2012. Other events may have occurred, but were not reported to our

office. It is important to register life events (births, deaths, marriages) as this can impact the delivery of

health care, education funding and in the event of a death, settling the estate amongst family members.

Event Reported Band Numbers

Confirmed Deaths Soda Creek 1

Stswecem’c Xgat’tem FN 5

Williams Lake 2

Births (current year) Soda Creek 1


Williams Lake 1

Births (prior to current year) Soda Creek 3


Williams Lake 5

Transfer by BCR (to) Soda Creek 0


Williams Lake 1

Marriages Soda Creek 2


Williams Lake 10

Status Cards issued Soda Creek Band 54


Williams Lake 69

Other Bands (includes Canim Lake) 133

Total issued 344

ABORIGINAL VICTIM SERVICES

Aboriginal Victim Services is funded through the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General.

Sarah Hood is the program coordinator at NSTC.

Program Objectives:

To lessen the impact of crime and trauma on victims and their families and to assist in their

recovery;

To increase victim safety and to help reduce the risk of further victimization;

To increase the level of participation and sense of empowerment for victims throughout their

participation in the criminal justice system; and

To increase the effectiveness of a victim while acting as a witness in court proceedings.

Aboriginal Victim Services has taken a more active role in regards to Pink Shirt/Anti Bullying Day by

promoting this program in the communities to show support in taking a stand against bullying by

wearing a pink t-shirt with the Shuswap translation of “Don’t be a Bully”.

NSTC staff showing their Pink!

Top row L-R: Agness Jack, Allan Tweedie, Marg Casey, Bonnie Slack, Cindy L. Charleyboy, Dave Feil, Frieda Belleau

Bottom Row L-R: Yvonne Smith, Sarah Hood, Charlotte Morrow, Ada Phillips, Cathy Verhaeghe

Aboriginal Victim Services had been an active participant in the Community Service Network which

consists of representatives from the NStQ bands. The goal of this group is to collaboratively respond

to common issues that take place within the communities.

TECHNOLOGY TRAINING COORDINATOR

Technology Training Coordinator, Dave Feil has implemented technology upgrades to NSTC this past

year. The main boardroom now has a high definition business class video conferencing system, and

the upstairs boardroom has a wireless ceiling mounted projector. Training for this new technology

with NSTC and Band office staff and NSTC Board Directors has been completed.

Usage of the Citizens' Database is about 35%. Community census' will be conducted in each

community this summer to capture more information for the data base. The creation, development

and testing of the Employee database is still ongoing.

Training throughout the past year included:

Video Conferencing

NSTC Staff training on Microsoft Office applications.. Our new technologies will be used to

deliver the training. As well some of the communities have been requesting training sessions

on specific office products.

NSTC purchased the IML Clicker system which works in combination with PowerPoint to

create interactive presentations. This hardware allows instant feedback during a

presentation or assembly.

Computer Training in 2012/2013

Course NSTC Staff Community

Staff

Chief/Councillors Total

Citizen’s Database 11 7 18

Office Programs 7 7

Website Maintenance 1 1

Video Conferencing 12 2 1 15

Conference Recorder 2 1 3

Totals 32 11 1 44

Community participation in the Citizens' Database

OPERATIONS COORDINATOR

Bonnie Slack, Operations Coordinator, spent six months setting up the Records Information

Management System (RIMS) at NSTC. Ada Phillips a community member from Soda Creek was

hired to handle main reception while Bonnie concentrated on setting up the workspace and filing

system.

NSTC and each member community worked together with records management specialist, Sandy

Bradley (Harwood & Associates), in setting up a common records managements system. NSTC has

coordinated the project which started with a RIMS "Boot camp" in February 2012. Staff at each

community are trained and proper storage facilities at NSTC and each Band Office are being

completed.

Sherry Sampson Deanna Christopher Cecily Billyboy

& Tavi Harry Canim Lake Williams Lake Stswecem'c Xgat'tem

Bonnie Slack, Northern Shuswap Tribal

Council

APPENDICES

A. Northern Shuswap Tribal Council Financial Statements

B. Northern Shuswap Treaty Society Financial Statements

Building our capacity together

Northern Shuswap Tribal Council

#17 South 1st Avenue, Williams Lake, BC V2G 3A9

Telephone: (250) 392-7361

Fax: (250) 392-6158

Website: www.northernshuswaptribalcouncil.com

Email: [email protected]

http://www.northernshuswaptribalcouncil.com/

mailto:[email protected]

Northern Shuswap Tribal Council

2012 / 2013

northern shuswap tribal council annual report€¦ · northern shuswap tribal council annual report...

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