Present:

Angus Toulouse
Anna Marie Abitong
Arnelda Bennett
Leroy Bennett
Michael Abitong
Nicole Eshkakogan (virtual)
Rhonda Stoneypoint
Sheldon Toulousel

Staff:

Andrea Hajt-Jacobs, Assistant Director – Council Secretariat (virtual)
Darla Boston, Political Office Administrative Assistant
Juanita Skruibis, Director of Family, Community, & Social Services (virtual)
Meggan McCracken, Director of Finance
Natalie Spencer, Human Resources Manager (virtual)
Nicholas Trudeau, IT Technician
Roger Jones, Council Secretariat (virtual)
Ross Assinewe, Director of Planning & Infrastructure
Samantha Keysis, Director Lands, Resources & Environment (virtual)
Sean Cassidy, Director of IT & Communications
Shannon Carroll, Communications Coordinator
Shelly Watt-Proulx, Director of Mental Health & Addictions Susan Deschamps, Director of Long-Term Care (virtual)
Wade Owl, Political Office Coordinator
Vance McPherson, Director of Education

Guests:

Regrets:

Lawrence Solomon
Nelson Toulouse McKenzie Toulouse
Paul Eshkakogan
Ryan McLeod, Financial Advisor

Opening Prayer by Leroy Bennett
Meeting called to order @ 6:01 PM

Agenda Items

Motion 2024/02 #01

Sagamok Chief & Council motion to accept agenda as presented and amended.

Moved by: Arnelda Bennett
Seconded by: Leroy Bennett
A/O: 0
Discussion: Added an update from Sean Cassidy to discuss the service failure. Added an update regarding Jordan’s Principle from Arnelda Bennett.
CARRIED

Previous Meeting Minutes

Motion 2024/02 #02

Sagamok Chief & Council motion to accept the minutes of December 19ᵗʰ, 2023 as presented and corrected.

Moved by: Anna Marie Abitong
Seconded by: Sheldon Toulouse
A/O: 0
Discussion:
CARRIED

Motion 2024/02 #03

Sagamok Chief & Council motion to accept the minutes of January 6ᵗʰ, 2024 as presented and corrected.

Moved by: Anna Marie Abitong
Seconded by: Leroy Bennett
A/O: 0
Discussion: Include the Task Sheet going forward for follow-up on delegated tasks and deferred items.
CARRIED

Correspondence

Received correspondence from Pam Sago-Toulouse on behalf of Tullulah Toulouse, who is representing Sagamok at the Miss Ontario Regional Canada Pageant. They are seeking sponsorship in the amount of$1000.00 for costs associated with participating.

The sponsorship request was directed to be handled administratively, and a motion will be made to show support.

Motion 2024/02 #04

Sagamok Chief & Council motion to support the request put forward for sponsorship for Tullulah Toulouse as a participant of the Miss Ontario Regional Canada Pageant.

Moved by: Anna Marie Abitong
Seconded by: Leroy Bennett
A/O: 0
Discussion: Rhonda Stoneypoint - When requests such as this come in, a guideline or policy for sponsorships to ensure consistency would be greatly appreciated.

Meggan McCracken – This is work that is already being done as part of the workplan development. Juanita Skruibis – Tullulah may qualify for Jordan’s Principle, and I will reach out to assist with an application.
CARRIED
Task: Reach out to Tullulah Toulouse for assistance with a Jordan’s Principleapplication.
Assigned To: Juanita Skruibis, Director of Family, Community, and Social Services

Revised Briefing Note on Elections | Roger Jones

The voters list would need to be posted a minimum of 60 days prior to the election date on August 9ᵗʰ, 2024, and can be posted by the Electoral Officer. Given this time constraint, the recommended date for appointment is prior to May 1ˢᵗ of the Election Year, with a March window to start the process of reviewing applicants prior to appointment.

The Sagamok Anishnawbek website does not yet have all the current up-to-date information, and it is recommended that the most recently available information package be made available, along with the BCR and Order issued to place Sagamok on the new Election schedule.

An RFP will be brought to the March meeting, no desire to change the number of Councillors with the adoption, only key change is the duration of the term to 4 years. Early April is the window we should strive for to appoint the officer as recommended.

Rhonda – I believe that we should ensure that clear information should be provided to avoid any potential misunderstanding of the changes, given the comments we have seen in the past on community social media pages.

Policy Management Framework for Education | Vance McPherson

Introduced the concept in December during the Q4 report, during his initial appraisal of the Education department, saw repeated concerns about policy rigidity vs loose interpretation of the policy for accommodation.

The Policy Management Framework proposed is to define the Education policy, procedures, and standards to allow for clear delineation as to what can and cannot be modified. The “Director’s Discretion” to be clear and consistent, and empower Education staff to exercise common sense and interpretation with regards to decision making.

The scope of this framework will only be applicable to Education’s new policies, procedures, standards,and revisions going forward, and will not be retroactively applied to change any previous decisions.

Leroy – The term students should be used rather than clients.

Vance – Clients also takes into consideration students, caregivers, etc, as well as students, but I can understand the perspective.

Rhonda – Previous years used the term “citizen” as an inclusive term for those receiving services from Education.

Arnelda –

Nicole – the policy itself is quite elegantly simple and allows for better capacity development for Education staff, and helps blunt the issue of policies outside the Education department’s scope affecting the department in detrimental ways.

Arnelda – this also has the potential to be carried out in other departments if it is well-received within Education.

Motion 2024/02 #05

Sagamok Chief & Council motion to adopt the Policy Management Framework for Sagamok Education as a go-forward governance policy for Education services only.

Moved by: Nicole Eshkakogan
Seconded by: Leroy Bennett
A/O: 0
Discussion: Nicole – removal of references to other organizations within policy framework for privacy reasons, and it may be useful to train leadership on roles and accountabilities between on-business and in-business.

Meggan – McKenzie would be a good helper with this given her role as Policy Officer.
CARRIED

Task: Collaborate with McKenzie Toulouse as Policy Officer to explore possible similar policy frameworks for other departments.
Assigned To: Vance McPherson, Director of Education

Update on Child Welfare | Meggan McCracken

Seeking a motion to draw on the Bank of Montreal Financing Facility before the end of the fiscal year to keep moving forward with our Housing Capital Plan. The Housing Capital Plan was approved with the knowledge that some of the funding sources may not have been approved to fund the project at time of approval. Some of the sources have been approved, and some have not, and to ensure we are secure in proceeding, we may need to access the funding facility. There are moving parts relating to which funding sources are approved, which are awaiting approval, and which are a shortfall of expected funding.

Notably, these finances don’t reflect the upcoming 2024/25 fiscal year.

Motion 2024/02 #06

Sagamok Chief & Council motion to draw $5,000,000.00 from our BMO Financing Facility prior to March 31ˢᵗ, 2024 to support the advancement of the Housing Capital Plan.
Moved by: Arnelda Bennett Seconded by: Nicole Eshkakogan A/O: 0
Discussion:
CARRIED

Motion 2024/02 #07

Sagamok Chief & Council motion to approve the proposed contract with Tulloch Engineering for the Maple Ridge Extension in the amount of $230,950.00.

Moved by: Sheldon Toulouse
Seconded by: Nicole Eshkakogan
A/O: 0
Discussion: Arnelda - Joe Trudeau is attending the two-day Housing Working Group session to assist with expediting the lot development of future Maple Ridge homes; the goal is to avoid another winter construction season.
CARRIED

Lunch Break at 12:25 PM from 1:14 PM

Lands, Resources, & Environment | Samantha Keysis

A residential lot for Barbara May Southwind, the 60-day posting was cleared by August of 2022. No issues were raised by community members as part of the posting.

Leroy – While I’m not opposing the motion, the area she selected is nearly entirely clay and if she were to build there, she may have heaving and foundation issues.

Ross – the area itself is silty clay; an engineer can be brought in to assess and build a stronger foundation but that will be costly just for an assessment.

Angus – we should at least offer the information discussed here to them, and allow them to proceed if they insist on building at these lots despite the warning.

Ross – for a similar home, the homeowner worked with our Project Technologist Joe Trudeau for a solution to their silty clay build site.

Motion 2024/02 #08

Sagamok Chief & Council motion to approve the 60-Day Posting for Tanya Keysis.

Moved by: Leroy Bennett
Seconded by: Rhonda Stoneypoint
A/O: 0
Discussion:
CARRIED.

Motion 2024/02 #09

Sagamok Chief & Council motion to approve BCR 2024-02-50 Residential Land Use Application for Barbara May Southwind.

Moved by: Sheldon Toulouse
Seconded by: Arnelda Bennett
A/O: 1 – Leroy Bennett Discussion:
CARRIED.

Task: Inform Barbara Southwind of potential foundational issues related to the clay ground.
Assigned To: Samantha Keysis, Director of Lands, Resources, and Environment

Motion 2024/02 #10

Sagamok Chief & Council motion to approve the 60 Day Posting for Cody Southwind.

Moved by: Sheldon Toulouse
Seconded by: Michael Abitong
A/O: 1 – Leroy Bennett
Discussion:

CARRIED.

Service Failure Update & Communications Update | Sean Cassidy

There has been a few days of intermittent disruption for the phone system at the Band Office and Health Office due to the way the infrastructure is laid out. Bell has visited to diagnose the issue, but has not yet arrived at a cause.

Second, migration of an old Synology server to the Azure Cloud ran into an issue when the hard drive holding the data from the Synology server failed. We ask that you provide morale and support going forward to ensure a smooth transition and troubleshooting period.

The Sagamok Facebook page has also transitioned from a Public group to a Private group, and the process of removing non-members and non-active employees. If someone is mistakenly removed, they can be reinstated.

The group is reviewed each morning by Communications staff, and any overly negative or spam posts are removed at the discretion of the Senior Executive Officer. However, we need to be careful with how many posts are censored to avoid driving out members to another newly established page.

Consideration has been made for limiting commenting for posts, and having any communication regarding posts directed to the person who makes posts.

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Adjournment

Next Meeting is scheduled for February 20ᵗʰ, 2024 at 9:30 PM.

Motion 2024/02 #11

Sagamok Chief & Council motion to adjourn the meeting.

Moved by: Arnelda Bennett
Seconded by: Anna Marie Abitong
A/O: 0
Discussion:
CARRIED

Closing Prayer by Leroy Bennett.

Meeting adjourned.

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