Sask. First Nation land claim settlement vote falls short due to low vote turnout | 24CA News
A Saskatchewan First Nation neighborhood says they failed to satisfy their voting threshold – placing their land declare settlement settlement in limbo.
Muscowpetung Saulteaux First Nation held a vote on Saturday to determine whether or not members had been in favour of the settlement settlement with the federal authorities.
According to a news launch issued by First Nation, 48 per cent of eligible members got here out to vote. This falls barely under the 50 per cent of eligible voters that wanted to be met.
Chief Melissa Tavita mentioned she’s dissatisfied within the turnout, contemplating she believes her neighborhood members are all on the identical web page.
“This is something that we were waiting for decades,” she instructed Global News.
“Usually you hear about reserves that go through these claims. They have internal issues with their leadership where they’re constantly fighting or internal issues within the community. But everything was our leadership. We move forward together as one. There’s no fights. We’re on board [with] our community. We move forward as one,” she added.
For Chief Tavita, this was a private mission as her mom was on council earlier than her.
“She talked about this 1909 claim in the government that showed us the government was going to owe us a lot of money for what they’d done in 1909. And so throughout this process of being chief and working on this claim, I thought of my mother in the back of my mind,” she defined.
Out of the 48 per cent of votes, 99.7% voted in favour of the settlement.
As a part of the settlement, if lower than half of the eligible inhabitants voted, however most votes fell in favour, the First Nation has a possibility for a re-vote.
Part of the settlement features a fee of $150 million and permitting the First Nation to buy round 18 thousand acres of land that may be transformed to reserves.
Band member Keith Pratt mentioned this cash might be used to rebuild the reserve.
“We can get buildings, we can build our store or our different things for our elders and community places that can be developed where people can meet,” he defined.
“Even our school can be upgraded, or even [build] a new school,” he added.
Other band councillors are encouraging their neighborhood to come back out.
“It’s important for our people after decades of fighting for this claim. We’ve had past leadership. A lot of them were gone and they fought for this claim for many, many years, decades. We want to hit home to our people that this is important,” Band member Rhonda Rosebluff mentioned.
Muscowpetung Saulteaux First Nation is planning to host its second likelihood vote for June 3.
Only 25 per cent of eligible voters are wanted for this vote, however the First Nation needs to make use of this chance to acknowledge the significance of voting.
“It’s sitting on our doorstep and all we do, all we need is our people to come out and vote,” band councillor Perance Cappo emphasised.
“We want to make sure that everybody comes out and votes and that nobody’s depending on other people to push this through. Nobody’s depending on other people to vote and say ‘Yes,’” Chief Tavita defined.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
