(Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell and Glenn Hicks

Local politics

Concerns over transparency ahead of Muskoday election

Mar 19, 2019 | 5:55 PM

With the Muskoday band election less than two days away, some council candidates are speaking out about what they view as a lack of transparency and accountability by the past council.

There are 16 people vying for the five council seats, including Ted Bear, who ran unsuccessfully in the late 1990s and early 2000s and also ran for chief in 2005. He said there’s been a lack of accountability by the former councils, and regarding keeping the public informed in general. He said he was concerned about the lack of openness regarding finances and fiscal relations with the federal government.

“The elected officials have to provide financial statements to the membership if they request it, and there should be more general community meetings so the community is more involved in the decision-making process,” Bear said.

Regarding what he said was a lack of due process Bear claimed there was far too much secrecy from the leadership.

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“People are keeping things hush-hush and keep things swept under the rug,” he said. “There has to be more openness in providing more information to the public.”

Within the past three months, paNOW has encountered several examples of elected officials not willing to comment on specific issues. In January, there were questions raised over several teachers fired at Muskoday school. The following month, a young boy was left alone on the school bus for over two hours before being noticed. Close to three weeks after the incident, Councilor Herman Crain addressed council’s three recommendations. Beverly Crain who is in charge of the band’s education authority declined comment.

Glenda Brass, a mother of five and a council candidate, said she too was very troubled when she heard the story about the little boy on the bus and received no answers at the time of the incident from the elected council regarding what was being done about it.

“I was shocked; people were inboxing me and asking me what I would do and I would say ‘Well they must have something in place, an order for things to happen and nobody knows,'” she said.

Brass said a lack of facts leads to rumors and added if people knew what was going on then they could help contribute to fixing the problems.

Randy Bear has been on council a total of 13 years, and is running again in this election. He refuted any suggestions council had not been transparent.

“We have had 28 straight unqualified audits, absolutely clean audits. We’ve never, ever been in third party management,” he said.

Bear said every year a meeting is held where the audit is presented. He said copies of the annual report and audit are also available to be picked up by any band member at the band office.

“There’s always going to be detractors but I find myself that these detractors, when there is a community meeting or when we have our annual report and audit, those people never show up,” he said.

Bear added all information related to meeting times are available through the band’s website, Facebook page, and at the Muskoday store.

“When people want to say they didn’t know, it’s because they didn’t make themselves aware,” Bear said.

Band members can vote Thursday between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. at the band hall. Electoral Officer Loretta Pete Lambert, told paNOW they have close to 1,400 eligible voters.

According to the band’s population statistics from 2017, there are 580 registered male voters living off reserve, and 692 registered female voters off reserve.

Lambert said registered band members living off reserve can mail in their ballots. She added the responsibility to validate the mailed in votes, is hers alone.

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panews@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @princealbertnow