Assessing the Assessment
Though shortened by a day, the Grand Council’s annual General Assembly was able to cover all the issues faced by the Cree Nation.
By Sonny Orr

On the day the delegates were due to arrive from the south to attend the Grand Council of Eeyou Istchee, low-laying clouds blanketed the airstrip making it difficult for Air CreeBec’s Dash-8 to land. After two attempts, the landing was aborted.

The same thing happened to the two charters destined for the main event that Cree politicians look forward to. The Annual General Assembly is an event that recounts the previous year’s activities and, of course, explains how all the money was spent.

The following day, with beautiful skies and pristine visibility, the planes landed and the delegates hustled over to the Samson Dick Memorial Arena to ready themselves for a gruelling two-day ordeal of meetings spent rehashing items from the past year.

The first item on the agenda was deferred to accommodate the participants who needed to leave the conference later that day so that they could make their presentations to the delegations from all 10 communities. The first up was former Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come, who addressed the topic of the new agreement with the federal government and touched a bit on Cree governance.

The next presenter, Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton, represented by Sylvain Faucher, discussed the financial statements of the GCCEI-Cree Regional Authority.

The audit showed that there were no real discrepancies or financial problems. However the deferred revenues seemed a little extraordinary at $15 million plus which represents $11 million more than the previous year and the amounts due to the communities at $21 million plus nearly double that of the year before. Another interesting note is the Cree Pension Plan, where the amounts for keeping the pension plan alive increased dramatically, creating forecasted deficits of $2.5 million until 2016. The CRA’s annual pension was $1,096,623.

What was really eye-opening were the salaries for the executive members which ranged from $164,309 to $321,808 for a total of $1,278,759. This makes it even more appealing and worthwhile to run for office!

The agenda then focused on the ratification of the financial statements, resolutions and minutes of the year’s meetings held by the GCCEI-CRA including the Council Board. Presentations of the Cree Entities reports were then brought up, mainly for the Cree School Board, Cree Board of Health and Social Services, the Cree Trappers Association, the Board of Compensation and Creeco and its subsidiaries. The latter two were deferred.

The Cree School Board presentation highlighted its 30-year anniversary. The CSB has managed quite well financially, with a surplus of $3.3 million and a notable increase in student attendance, in particular, Chisasibi’s James Bay Eeyou School with 1,035 students. At the post-secondary level, 434 students were enrolled in universities, colleges and CEGEPs across Canada. Another highlight was the allocation of $1,797,900 for renovating and repairing schools and teachers’ residences.

The Cree Board of Health and Social Services’ presentation focused on creating more jobs throughout the Eeyou Istchee. One issue brought up were the Patient Services facilities in the south and how some residences were not up to par. A suggestion was made to examine the Inuit-run facilities in Montreal, where an apartment building houses all the patients from the North, including serving them country food, which is sorely missed by long-term Cree patients staying in the city.

Grand Chief Matthew Mukash presented for the Cree Nation Government, showing us that there is definite movement towards the development of a working framework to comply with the New Relationship Agreement with both provincial and federal governments. The proposed structure was outlined, with additional departments to be administered under the CRA, notably Justice and Correctional Services, Public Security / Eeyou Eenou Police Force with a few more positions to be filled, mainly the Deputy Director General, and Eeyou Eenou Police Commission and an Ethics Commission and Ombudsman. The Grand Chief stated that a document will be presented in the coming year focussing on the proposed development of Cree Nation Government.

There was also an emotional plea for making poverty a thing of the past. This brought up the topic of how our people, even though we have successfully managed to negotiate many working agreements with the various governments, agencies and other external sources of funding, that everyone who is Cree knows at least one person who is related to them or is a good friend, living in poverty, or has to struggle to provide for themselves or their families. The question was raised whether we are all united or is there a two-tiered system that continually feeds the well-to-do families with more wealth while at the same time the poor get poorer. This is an issue that no one wants to tackle, but it was brought up at the assembly, not to exclude the poor when it comes to Cree Nation Government and nation building.

Unfortunately, Chief Clarence Louie of the Osoyoos First Nation from Penticton, B.C., turned out to be a no-show. It would have been interesting to hear this man talk about how he managed to turn his community around from practically 100% unemployment to nearly 100% employment by using economic development as the way to self-sufficiency and community pride. Perhaps another time.

One of the most impressive participants was a young lad from Waskaganish, who had won the public-speaking contest there. Introduced by Deputy Grand Chief Ashley Iserhoff, the young man spoke very frankly about the Cree and their lifestyles, and about the evolution from who we were in the past to who were are today. After finishing his stirring speech, he received a standing ovation and loud applause filled the arena.

The host community, situated in beautiful Whapmagoostui, surprised many delegates with its natural scenery and wide-open spaces. Many, who were in Whapmagoostui for the first time, appreciated the exceptional good weather, often stating that their southern weather was quite dreary and had rained the entire summer. The fact that Whapmagoostui-Kuujjuaraapik has a 2km-long beach, two Aboriginal cultures and basically two of everything else impressed many of the delegates.