| Nekaneet to vote on land act |
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| Local Content - Local News |
| Written by publisher |
| Tuesday, 02 February 2010 15:41 |
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By Marcia Love After 15 years of unpaid land revenues, the Nekaneet First Nation is holding a referendum vote on Feb. 4 to address the issue and bring into effect the Nekaneet Land and Resource Management Act. The Act is a response to the controversial use of Nekaneet Reserve lands being leased out by individual Nekaneet citizens to non-band members, with no money from the land use being returned to the Nekaneet government. Chief Pahtayken said the Nekaneet has a policy regarding the leasing out of Reserve land, and says the revenue should be returned to the Nekaneet. The land policy required each individual land user to pay $150 per quarter section each year. However, she said the policy wasn’t enforceable. The Land Management Act will change that. “When I got in on this second term, I received phone calls from members asking what I was going to do about this land,” she said. “We’re making it so we’re going through a permanent system.” Pahtayken said many Nekaneet members were being misinformed about the use of Reserve lands. She said only a few band members with small sections of land are paying their due share. “Individuals were pocketing the money when they leased the land out,” the chief said. “The policies were given to the people who used land. The revenue should have been going back to the Nekaneet, but it wasn’t. When this Act passes, that will stop.” The Land Management Act will state how Reserve land is to be managed and deal with the improper use of the land by Nekaneet members. It is also intended as a framework for the return of control of Reserve land and Treaty Land Entitlement land (TLE land). Chief Pahtayken said she first became aware the Nekaneet were not receiving their due amount from certain land leases during the band’s first audit in 2005. “We weren’t aware of what was going on, because we never saw an audit before,” she said. “Then we started seeing the financial situation and how much some land people owed. Some of us who had little bits of land were being misinformed and told we didn’t have to pay anything back.” There are some members who disagree with the implementation of the Act. Louis Oakes, a Nekaneet band member who lives in Regina, said he doesn’t think many members of the community understand the intent of the Land Management Act. “This Act is one of those policies that I don’t think is going to move Nekaneet ahead,” Oakes said. “Once it is done, I don’t think people are going to take to it too good.” The chief and council sent out a questionnaire to the community in November 2009 asking for input on the proposed Land Management Act. One question asked if land controllers should be allowed to continue to treat Nekaneet Reserve land as their own. Of the 84 members who answered the questionnaire, 76 responded with a definitive no, while seven said under certain circumstances and three did not answer the question. One respondent said land controllers should not be allowed to use Nekaneet Reserve land as their own because the Nekaneet is a growing First Nation. “We need to think of the future generation, recreation, sports, education, housing, employment and try and find some way to create healing institutions for our youth and young adults,” said the respondent. Following the implementation of the Land Management Act, people will not be able to build or demolish fencing without written permission from the Nekaneet Government. The Act will not apply to the use of Reserve land by the Nekaneet Government itself as the occupant, nor the use of two hectares or less of Reserve land for keeping livestock by members of the same household. The Nekaneet will use the revenue they receive from the use of Reserve land for projects such as housing, economic development, building infrastructure, post-secondary education, youth programs and elders’ services. A land manager will also be appointed. The returns from the Land Management Act will give the Nekaneet the ability to support urban members of the band, who would otherwise not be receiving assistance. “The program dollars we get on the Reserve are only for on-reserve people,” Pahtayken said. “I would be getting calls from our urban members and we didn’t have the money to help them. Now we can assist our urban members.” Pahtayken said the drafting of the Land Management Act is well overdue. “We’ve had our TLE land since 1995,” she said. “Fifteen years is long enough for the band members to wait. We could have built 80 homes already for our people.” |
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