The Youth of MCCN are our most valuable resource and education is the key to their future. Education is the largest item in our Budget - as it should be. We are proud of Sakastew School. It has enabled us to take control of the education of our children to ensure that they are equipped to handle the challenges of the future, while retaining the cultural heritage that is a large part of their identity as Cree people. Therefore, it came as a surprise to find out that we are failing.
A review of Sakastew School revealed some shocking statistics: There is a 53% absenteeism rate and a 12% graduation rate. This is simply unacceptable. More than half of the kids who are supposed to be at school are not there!
We directed the administration to sit down and take a serious look at this review and then we designed some long and short term measures to improve the quality of education, the attendance and ultimately the graduation rates and the success of our youth.
The work is ongoing, but some of the short term measures were a school lunch program and an educational exchange trip to China. The lunch program was entirely funded by Chief and Council and follows the principle that once the students make it to school in the morning we have to keep them there all day. If they leave school grounds for lunch, many do not make it back for the afternoon session. In addition, this was putting a huge strain on our buses having to do an extra series of lunch time runs. Now that the children are staying for lunch, they have a nutritious meal that will get them through the rest of the day and there is also extra time for intramural sports, further contributing to their health and wellbeing.
In addition to focusing on the school, I also felt that more emphasis was needed on the Youth Center and its programming. Last summer, four full time positions were funded at the Youth Center to provide enhanced summer programming and to organize last years summer games. Throughout the school year, two full time staff were kept at the center to provide programs and activities as an after school and weekend initiative. This upcoming summer will see a further extension of this service as we prepare to celebrate our 100th Birthday.
Children need to be guided, to be molded, to be shown the proper way of doing things. They need to be kept busy to allow their brains to grow and florish. As adults and parents we are ultimately responsible for this but as a community we need to ensure that the proper mechanisms are in place for this to happen. With strong social programs come strong young minds. We need to do everything we can to ensure that the youth of today become the strong leaders of tommorrow.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
Child and Family Services
After taking office in 2008, we realized very early that the current state of Child and Family was wholly inadequate to serve the needs of the community. In the Fall of 2008 a full Review of CFS was completed and indicated that a new direction was needed for the organization. Chief and Council indicated that this "new" direction must entail making the organization more reflective of the cultural needs or the community. With this in mind, CFS decided to use Puk as a pilot project.
As we announced at the Annual General Assembly, CFS will build a new facility to house the agency's office and financial instuitions. There are also plans for the creation of a possible 26 permanent positions. Negotiations are underway and we are expected to start construction this Spring.
It has long been our traditions that it takes an entire community to raise a child. We need to get back to these roots. To teach Children to respect adults and to teach all adults to respect these children. Children are a gift and we need to treat them in a respectful, loving way so that we ensure our children are successful in their futures. Only then will they know how to treat children of their own and once that is established, our nation will grow to realize the full strength of it's potential.
Far to many years have passed where our Cree children were removed from their families and detached from their communities and their culture. This has been the root cause of our current state of affairs and our social situations, however, if we work together to build a stronger child caring agency we can reestablish the strength of our families and ultimately, the strength of our communities. The government had a very specific goal when they initiated these previous policies and we will not let them win.
As we announced at the Annual General Assembly, CFS will build a new facility to house the agency's office and financial instuitions. There are also plans for the creation of a possible 26 permanent positions. Negotiations are underway and we are expected to start construction this Spring.
It has long been our traditions that it takes an entire community to raise a child. We need to get back to these roots. To teach Children to respect adults and to teach all adults to respect these children. Children are a gift and we need to treat them in a respectful, loving way so that we ensure our children are successful in their futures. Only then will they know how to treat children of their own and once that is established, our nation will grow to realize the full strength of it's potential.
Far to many years have passed where our Cree children were removed from their families and detached from their communities and their culture. This has been the root cause of our current state of affairs and our social situations, however, if we work together to build a stronger child caring agency we can reestablish the strength of our families and ultimately, the strength of our communities. The government had a very specific goal when they initiated these previous policies and we will not let them win.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Largest Diesel Land Spill occurred at Pukatawagan
Everyone in Puk knows the challenges that we have faced in the past 20 years with dealing with our contaminated Soil. In the 50's, MB Hydro brought in a diesel generator to power the Indian Agents house, the old church, the nursing station and the old school. It was later transferred over to Indian Affairs. For unknown reasons, whether it was improperly installed or because of aging, the diesel began leaking out and it has been estimated that approximately 500,000 gallons of diesel was spilt over a period of 30 years! We have been looking at the volume of diesel that leaked out of MB Hydro's Generator Station and we believe that this diesel spill is the largest spill ever that has occurred on land. This diesel saturated the soil down to the bedrock and then began spreading out, contaminating larger and larger areas of land. Because there was so much difficulty in getting one of the two agencies, either MB Hydro or Indian affairs, to accept responsibility there was a longer and longer delay in cleaning up the affected area and the contamination continued to spread while we were trying to get them to hurry and clean it up.
In the early 90's, Missinnippi Construction, our local construction company, began cleaning out the old soil and we continue to do so today. This is done by digging it out and transporting it in dump trucks up to the drying location. Here the old soil is laid flat to allowed to air dry. Once a site is deemed to be free from contamination by a series of techniques, the large hole is then filled in with new clean soil from another location.
This has been going on for the past 22 years! In the process, all buildings that were once on top of that land have been demolished to make way for the clean up. As it was located in the heart of the community, we lost the Community Complex (Band Office, community hall, grocery store and hotel), a large number of houses around the sites, various office buildings and a number of small businesses.
As the buildings were demolished so was the community spirit. We took pride in having a state of the art Facility which provided a gathering place for all our community events. We took pride in giving tours of the large number of structures that sat at the heart of our home and provided for our economic initiatives.
The final cleanup is nearing completion and negotiations are under way with the federal government for replacing the capital buildings that were lost. Once we are successful, the results would benefit the community in so many ways. Obviously, a new state of the art facility to replace the one lost would provide a structure for our band offices, community offices and hotel. It would provide a community hall to allow for members to come and gather for community events and our public meetings. It would provide a central location for all people to come together and interact on a daily basis. This would strengthen our community, strengthen our people and strengthen our future.
In the early 90's, Missinnippi Construction, our local construction company, began cleaning out the old soil and we continue to do so today. This is done by digging it out and transporting it in dump trucks up to the drying location. Here the old soil is laid flat to allowed to air dry. Once a site is deemed to be free from contamination by a series of techniques, the large hole is then filled in with new clean soil from another location.
This has been going on for the past 22 years! In the process, all buildings that were once on top of that land have been demolished to make way for the clean up. As it was located in the heart of the community, we lost the Community Complex (Band Office, community hall, grocery store and hotel), a large number of houses around the sites, various office buildings and a number of small businesses.
As the buildings were demolished so was the community spirit. We took pride in having a state of the art Facility which provided a gathering place for all our community events. We took pride in giving tours of the large number of structures that sat at the heart of our home and provided for our economic initiatives.
The final cleanup is nearing completion and negotiations are under way with the federal government for replacing the capital buildings that were lost. Once we are successful, the results would benefit the community in so many ways. Obviously, a new state of the art facility to replace the one lost would provide a structure for our band offices, community offices and hotel. It would provide a community hall to allow for members to come and gather for community events and our public meetings. It would provide a central location for all people to come together and interact on a daily basis. This would strengthen our community, strengthen our people and strengthen our future.
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