Issue_2: Can you describe an important issue that you had to resolve?
With the new Chief and Council in place and the Glooscap First Nation Economic Development Corporation being formed to create accountability, how should the board be structured?
Cause:
Cause_2: What caused the issue and why was it important?
This is important because we only have one crack at this and I think that as a community we want to do things absolutely right. Whether it would be to put together a quality board of directors and quality staff, we want to make sure that our First Nation community can obtain the goals that we have set out and our future goals. Our mandate is to be non-dependent on federal funds. We want to do some great things for our community members and move forward in a way that really promotes First Nations. We do not just want to work in a First Nations context anymore, we want to be known more like the Membertous and Millbrooks and I think that we are well on our way to doing that.
Background:
Q1: Can you tell us a bit about your career path to date?
Sure my name is Jason Peters, I am the Chief Executive Officer of the Glooscap First Nations Economic Development Corporation. Previous to that I worked at Glooscap First Nation for about a year as the Native Employment Officer and the Economic Development Officer. For eleven years before that I worked for the province of New Brunswick in the Wellness Culture and Sport and the Aborigional Affairs Secretariat.
Q3: Can you describe your role in the organization?
My formal role as the CEO, I guess everything goes through me. I am the only employee of the board of directors and I manage staff. Managing staff, that has to do with the financials, I also deal with HR of course. I have signing authority with regards to a lot of our major contracts and I have to negotiate those also.
Q2: Can you describe a typical workday for yourself?
I cannot say that there is a typical work day. With all of our responsibilities, or my responsibilities we are involved with everything from community work to legal work to setting up a major roadside development. We really have a lot of responsibilities plus I am responsible to the Chief and Council and I am also responsible to my board of directors.
Q4: Can you describe your leadership style?
My leadership style, I guess you would have to look at the Mi'kmaq, with regards to the Mi'kmaq context and my culture. I believe that everything is based on the circle so there is no hierarchy. Yes the buck stops at me. However, we work in more of a participant based leadership where I take everybody's opinion, especially my senior management. We bounce ideas off of each other and then we come up with something we can definitely move forward with.
Q5: What does good performance mean for you in your position?
I think good performance is when I am happy with the job that we are doing, if I see change. Change is big within First Nations communities and a lot of First Nations are afraid of change. But I think when they see positive change, I know that we are doing something well. For instance our roadside development. That is something that is very new to our community and I think that people are now getting board because they are starting to see the great benefits that this is going to have for the future.
Q7: Can you describe any key events that occurred either in your life or that of the organization that were crucial to
success over time?
During our last election with our Chief and Council, they came in with a new outlook. They wanted to be extremely accountable to their band membership. I think that was key in the formation of the GFNEDC and many of the new policies associated with our First Nation community of Glooscap.
Q6: What does your organization do and how is it different?
The GFNEDC works to through the Band Council, the Chief and Council of Glooscap First Nations through an MOU (memorandum of understanding). What we do is manage their revenue centers. So we basically manage the variety store, the gas bar, the gaming center, fisheries and all new business entities for the community. So we turn our profits back to the community for community economic development. So we are the first stage of community economic development where we make the money and the community spends some money.
Q8: How does your organization make money or sustain itself financially?
We have a bit of a different model where we are managing the revenue centers. We generate revenue through the revenue centers. Through First Nations gaming and VLTs, through our variety store, our gas bar, also through fisheries. We have two fishing vessels and we have multiple fishing licenses that we do quite well with. Plus we also have access to a lot of different funding through the federal and provincial governments through Aboriginal Affairs, Northern Development and Nova Scotia ERDT.
Q9: Who are the stakeholders of your organization?
The stakeholders for our organization are the Chief and Council. Through them would be the band members of Glooscap First Nation. Glooscap is very much a different community. There are seventy people currently on the community however they have a band membership of three hundred and fifty members. So they have to provide services to people off reserve also. Our band membership has people in the Annapolis Valley, there are people in New Brunswick, Massachusetts, Florida, all the way out to Manitoba. So really that is one of the reasons that we have to generate more funds, is basically to help these people.
Q10: Can you comment on the history of the Glooscap First Nation?
Glooscap First Nation was once affiliated with Annapolis Valley First Nation known as Cambridge. Back in the early eighties they were given a piece of land in Hantsport, Nova Scotia. Since that point -Glooscap was formed in the early eighties, and they have grown to a band membership of about three hundred and fifty people spread out all over North America. They have a Chief and three Councillors, that is the political side, plus they have staff and now an Economic Development Corporation which I am CEO of.
Q11: Why was change needed?
I think over the last few years Glooscap First Nation was in the paper for not the best reasons I guess. We were receiving some negative media with regards to our Council. The new Chief and Council decided to go in a bit of a different direction, very much about accountability. Within the first year of their mandate they went over and they created some new policies for staff, and how some new things will be run. Part of that was the formation of the GFNEDC.
Q12: What is the role of government in relation to your organization?
The Federal Government are basically responsible for First Nations communities. They are our major funder. They provide programming dollars for everything from health to education to economic development. The funding for the community actually comes from the Federal Government which allows us to operate and provide services to our community members.
Q13: What big issues will your organization be facing in the next few years?
One of the major issues is that in the last few years the Federal and Provincial Governments have been cutting back with regards to all programming. Not just First Nations, but for all organizations. One of the areas where they are not with regards to First Nations is economic development. So we are really trying to focus on economic development for future growth because our ultimate goal is to become self-sufficient and not need Federal funds in the future.
Q14: How does your organization deal with failure?
Well it is interesting, in our GFNEDC strategic plan we have actually built in some fail-safes. One of the most important things that we have is do no harm to the community or to self. We realize that when something comes to us and it sounds like a great idea, we may not follow through because it may harm the community or Mother Earth. The next day we review our steps and we present to the Board of Directors on what we have done and why we have turned the project down and we move on to the next project. We found within the first year that there are a lot of shiny pennies out there for our Economic Development Corporation, but we have to be very strategic with what we are doing. It is the community money that we are spending and we have to be very cognisant of that.
Q15: Can you comment on the Indian Act?
I believe that a lot of Canadians believe that our First Nations operate like a municipality and that is not the case. The First Nation falls under a Federal jurisdiction in a document called the Indian Act which is problematic in a lot of cases. Some First Nations communities, especially with regards to economic development, want to move forward. There are some jurisdictional issues between the Province and the Federal Government that we have to deal with. There is also issues such as land ownership. First Nations do not own their land, it is Federal land. So if they wanted to purchase land outside of the First Nation community, they are not allowed to; which is also an issue that we are fighting right now with regards to the Indian Act. Under the Indian Act there are taxation issues. Status Indians do not pay tax. Now they pay tax off reserve of course, when they are purchasing something. Granted, anything purchased on reserve or sent to a reserve they would not pay tax on. There are also income tax issues. Status Indians who work in a First Nation community do not pay income tax. So that is something that people are unaware of sometimes also. But if they were off reserve, they will pay all Federal taxes. Housing is another issue in First Nations communities. In many cases the band members do not own the house, it is owned by the community. The reason for that is once again it is a land issue. People cannot own a house unless they receive a certificate of possession from Chief and Council. So there are actually some cases, not in Glosscap, but it has been known that people will move into other people's houses when they are away on vacation for instance and they will take over their house because it is owned by the band and not the individual. The RCMP are most of the time involved with cases like that, where they have to come in and remove people from houses that they do not own. Another implication is in many First Nations, everything is covered. So for instance heat and lights are also covered by the First Nation community. The community is responsible for most aspects of their life.