Roles & Responsibilities for band councils

some vote with their feet

The primary duties of any form of governance, including band councils under the Indian Act, should include the following:

• provide sound, honest governance;
• develop and maintain healthy, safe and secure communities;
• provide services, products and facilities required or allowed, necessary or desirable, for residents of the community.

The above list is so bloody obvious that it shouldn't need to be written. The present band council at Kanehsatà:ke as well as past band councils going back decades have failed to meet these basic standards.

• Kanehsatake is unhealthy, unsafe, and insecure.
• There are many political, religious, family, racial, age, gender, class and other divisions within the population at Kanehsatà:ke. Most are overlooked, ignored and poorly-served.
• Services, housing for example, but also facilities such as a basic community exercise gym, that many other communities would consider normal, are either in crisis, poorly administered or non-existent.
• As noted elsewhere on this site, the present band council has begun to dismantle one of the few things that does work at Kanehsatà:ke - the Health Center. Band councillors, Paul Nicholas and Sonya Gagnier, along with other members of the board of directors violated their own by-laws as well as standard board operating procedures to gut the board of any real community involvement or oversight. Read more about that HERE, and HERE, and HERE, and HERE.
• Some councillors readily admit that Kanehsatà:keʼs band council is “dysfunctional.” Thatʼs an understatement.  About as useful as tits on a bull.

The band council has routinely conducted most of its business in secret, does not inform people about its policies or decisions, and is therefore unaccountable to the community as a whole. This situation has existed for decades and each election brings more empty promises for "openness" "accountability" and change. Bullwacky! and you know it.

Simply replacing the old idiots with a bunch of new ones isn't going to make change. The band council needs to redefine its roles and responsibilities in order to provide more immediate political and economic stability, transparency and increased accountability to all of the residents at Kanehsatà:ke – including Traditional people. Kanehsatake will be waking up each morning to another Groundhog Day... over and over.

The band council needs to understand that the head/chief councillor and each individual councillor is a public servant – supported by public moneys and must serve the community as a whole.

These moneys do not belong to the band council, to do with as it please. These funds are provided to the people of Kanehsatake.

People should demand the band council to administer these funds as a public trust on their behalf, and as a public duty that demands accountability to the people of Kanehsatake. This doesn't exist today. Instead, the band council considers itself "the ultimate authority" and to hell with you all.

Go to this page to read a series of guidelines developed for the efficient and respectful, day-to-day functioning of a band council. These guidelines apply ONLY to members of the band council – not its staff.

Read that page, then asnwer a quick poll question on the right-hand side of this blog.