"New Council at New Credit"

By Jim Windle, NEW CREDIT

New Credit elected its new council this weekend.

Incumbent Chief Bryan LaForme will sit with a council made up of primarily familiar faces but with three new ones as well.

Along with Chief LaForme, receiving the oath of office from Electoral Officer Veronica Jamieson were Kerri King, Marvin LaForme, Maureen LaForme, R. Stacey LaForme, Adam Sault, Cecil Sault and Janice Y. Sault.

New to council will be Maureen LaForme, Janice Sault and Adam Sault.

LaForme won his second term of office with 178 votes over twice that of his closest challenger Warren Sault.

"These past two years have been the fastest two years I have ever spent," said Chief LaForme. "It seems we just got started on projects and the next thing you know it's election time."

He addressed the new council with a challenge to continue in the spirit of the former council and keep the collective good of the community in sight.

"It was a real pleasure working with the previous council," said LaForme. "We didn't always agree on everything but we worked them out and that's what we will have to do with this council as well. We have to work as a team."

Teka spoke to a number of councilors about what they felt the pressing issues for the next term of council will be.

Chief Bryan LaForme: Incumbent: "Priorities for the next term are going to be to ensure good quality water for our community. We want to finish our expansion, the next phase is the boundary roads and we'd like to get them done and when we do we will have drinking water. The other priority will be to continue with our subdivision. And we have one more issue on our plate right now and that is a residential home for our elderly. Right now we have a lot of widows and widowers in our community and they are heading into town for residential homes and rather than do that we'd like to keep them here in our community where we can take care of them and look after their medical needs.

Marvin K. LaForme: Incumbent: At the end of the next two year term he will have served off and on for 20 years.

"There are a lot of government issues still on the table. We have to continue to stand up for our rights and keep pushing things forward and in our favour."

Stacey LaForme: Incumbent: "We will have local issues to look after but we also must continue to fight against the suite of legislation being proposed in Ottawa. Just because the Government prorogued that doesn't mean it's dead.

Also to be honest we have to ask our national chief to be accountable and stand up for where he was when these issues were being fought in Ottawa. He has taken the position that he leads from the rear. How can you do that unless he's leading us backwards.

Cec Sault: Incumbent: We will have battles on

(Continued to page 2)

(Continued from front)

the home front and battles from afar on the political front. There are going to be issues here at home that we're going to have to deal with on and off reserve.

With the issues that are arising for all First Nations people we're going to have to band together. It's like a big jigsaw puzzle and each piece are various First Nations.

Here in the community we will have to deal with funding, health care, education and with our elders. I have great concern for our elders.

Maureen LaForme: New: I ran because I feel that I am capable of contributing a positive attitude towards the Community and people. This community is very important to me and I am doing this from my heart.

I believe we must get more proactive with inherent rights issues. I also believe in the promotion of culture, education and economic development.

Adam Sault: New: This my first term but I have worked for council off and on since high school so I know procedure. The last two years have been good. The previous council did a lot of good things but everyone makes mistakes too. You can't please everybody. I think we need to carry on with some of the things last council started and bring in some new ideas when we can. The Subdivision is important and the water quality. We've got a lot of bad wells here and if they are left too long they will be a health problem if not looked after.

Janice Sault: New: I felt that my education and life experience I wanted to give back something to the community so I ran. I feel that health, education and training of our people are very important issues. I'd like to see more of our educated people given the opportunities to get employment here and give back to the community.