Today, as Leaders, we need to plan for our future and the future of our grandchildren. Just as our predecessors planned for us in our Treaties, we need to provide for our members through employment rather than thinking rations all the time. We have created a Business/Investment Centre that will house Band owned businesses that will not only financially manage the businesses but also assist in managing them. We now have a number of businesses that are running and becoming profitable and offering employment to our members. The exciting part of this initiative is that we are building it with our own capacity. We have a team of senior managers that assist in capitalizing on our strengths, problem solving on our organizational complexities and researching when we do not know something. We need to be proud of our members for their teamwork, innovation, and mentorship. We need to build on our labour pool and believe in our future educational capacity.

The Senior Management team works on the concepts of understanding that the Leadership lead, they implement, and they link their duties to their staff. They understand there must be direction, respect, and responsibility to get the job done. This is the first time that we as Leaders have been respected, and upheld to the stature we are deemed. With that, we try to guide our management team in the right cultural direction. In addition, we are building a management structure that we can trust and provide some stability. We need our staff to be committed and productive. You as membership have known through our community meetings, community functions and community presentations that we are trying to become more accountable to you. We need you, also, to be accountable to us. We need you to maintain your community by ensuring your children is taught in our language, our ceremonies and our culture and incorporate the education to protect and preserve what we have, only then can we succeed fully.

As I stated before and the Treaties confirm, there is fiduciary obligation that the Federal government must enact, but as this is our land, we also have a responsibility to gain our share of the resources that were taken from us through lack of proper translation and education at the time of signing. Yes, these things did occur but nothing stops us from taking what is ours. More importantly, we are not to limit ourselves within the boundaries the Federal and Provincial government has tried to place on us. We still have our culture and ceremonies that continue to be our foundations that have sustained us for eons.

We are inspired by the teamwork, the dreams, and the leadership that give you the socio-economic and educational conditions for you to take charge of your choices to provide for yourself and family. We also understand the impatience, the complaints, and your own agenda to accomplish what you expect us to do. We too are impatient especially when we plan for years and I think the O’Chiese Truck Stop/Café has been the longest test to our patience. We planned for this company since 2006, it is still just in the construction stages, and it is finally happening. Yes, our patience was tested but we continue to persevere and work toward the initiatives and they will eventually become reality. The Federal and Provincial Governments are spilling into our territories and traditional land areas and they think that we have been conquered and they think that we will go away but it is not happening and we need to continue to show them that we have not only learned and understood enough of their system to work in our favor. Moreover, we are the fastest growing population and with that, they will begin to try and cut programs, funding and treaties to rid themselves of their fiduciary obligations. We need you as our members to continue to support and help us lead you into a new era.

As always, I thank the community, elders, and employees for their continued support, encouragement, and prayers. Always my biggest supporters, my wife and family; I thank you.