Off-reserve meetings held

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The Native Council of Canada (Alberta) is conducting its annual general meeting in three cities in northern, central and southern centres in the province to ensure a high degree of participation by the non-status and off-reserve Indians it represents.

The first meeting was held in Anzac near the Fort McMurray First Nation, on Oct. 21, when Doris Ronnenberg was confirmed again as NCCA president.

A special guest was John Corbiere of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. who spearheaded the successful court challenge to the Indian Act provision that disallowed off-reserve members the right to vote in band elections. Corbiere, former chief of the Batchewana First Nation, took the case to the Supreme Court of Canada, which in May 1999 gave First Nations 18 months to amend their elections procedures so off-reserve members can vote as of Nov. 20 this year. The move has been vigorously opposed by the Assembly of First Nations, which has lobbied unsuccessfully for an extension, citing insufficient time for consultation and implementation of the decision.

On Oct. 23, Ronnenberg, along with Corbiere and Valerie Arcand, newly elected director for the Treaty 6 area, paid a visit to Sweetgrass' office in Edmonton to discuss meeting highlights.

At Anzac, apart from the NCCA elections, discussions around the Corbiere case and local election codes, one individual raised the difficulty he was having getting his application for Indian status under Bill C-31 processed, and Ronnenberg said they would help.

Another thing that came out of the northernmost stop is that "this meeting has breathed new life into that local," said Ronnenberg.

On Nov. 4, the NCCA's annual general meeting reconvened in the city at the Ramada Inn.

The council adopted a resolution endorsing "equity of access" for off-reserve Alberta Indians to federal human resource development programs. They also announced legal funding from Human Resources Development Canada for a charter challenge on the principal endorsed by the resolution.

In a follow-up press release, Ronnenberg stated she was asking the federal government to "rethink all its policies for all off-reserve Indians, non-status Indians and Indians governed by Bill C-31-particularly for their training and employment needs" which she said was "part of inherent and treaty rights."

Another key point raised by Ronnenberg was that, within three years, NCCA will hold a province-wide election of their officers and board members using electronic voting.

"We all must move with the times-telephone/internet voting is both practical and inexpensive, and affords the highest degree of democracy for our people," the president's report stated.

The final day of the meeting was held on Nov. 14 in Medicine Hat.