November 6, 2015

United States President Barack Obama has rejected the Keystone XL pipeline and Melina Laboucan-Massimo could not be happier.

Trudeau cabinet includes two Indigenous members

November 3, 2015.

If Prime Minister-elect Justin Trudeau has any doubt that First Nations leaders will be “holding his feet to the fire” then that doubt will be wiped away by a position paper that will be presented to him when he meets with Chiefs individually.

Assembly of First Nations Alberta Regional Chief Craig Mackinaw was among the 50 or so Chiefs and their proxies to attend a Chiefs’ summit hosted by Tsuu T’ina First Nation at Grey Eagle Resort and Casino yesterday.

FCPP says standard scale for Chiefs’ compensation needed

November 2, 2015.

Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam isn’t meeting with his national counterparts today to discuss how to move forward in ensuring that the new Trudeau government delivers on its promises.

In fact, Adam isn’t convinced that Prime Minister-elect Justin Trudeau will do any better than previous federal governments, Conservative or Liberal.

October 29, 2015

Alberta Education is hoping that a multi-ministry approach to dealing with poor attendance numbers for Northland School Division will make the difference.

Lorna Rosen, deputy minister of education, said NSD was the best funded school division in the province by Alberta Education. But continuing to pour money into solutions without understanding the issues would lead to the same results.

October 27, 2015. Onion Lake Cree Nation Chief Wallace Fox was charged Monday with two counts of assault, one count of possession of a dangerous weapon and one count of uttering threats to damage property stemming from a domestic incident at his Onion Lake residence on May 13, 2015. Vicki Monague filed her complaints against Fox with the Onion Lake RCMP detachment. More recently, she filed complaints against the detachment’s officers because she felt they didn’t take her domestic violence allegations seriously.

October 28, 2015.

A budget that was mostly silent on Indigenous priorities has First Nations’ leaders concerned.

“It’s kind of disappointing because of all the discussion that’s been happening lately so I’m hoping that the ministers do sit down with the Chiefs in the next little while to deal with some of the issues they’ve been talking about,” said Assembly of First Nations Alberta Regional Chief Craig Mackinaw.

Alberta’s Indigenous people earned a single-pointed mention in this afternoon’s budget tabled by the province’s finance minister Joe Ceci. It was the first budget brought down by the NDP since forming the government in May.

Ceci said three per cent of the Heritage Fund – or $540 million – will be used for growth-oriented companies.

October 23, 2015

The first houses to be built on a First Nation in Alberta through the First Nations Market Housing Fund have broken ground on the Siksika First Nation.

“I heard that they were working on it a couple of weeks ago so I went by (yesterday) to see what it looked like and I was excited to see it. It’s always refreshing. There are hopeful signs when you see construction going on,” said Chief Vincent Yellow Old Woman.