By Nigel Maxwell

Band members demand chief’s resignation

Dec 9, 2010 | 1:47 PM

Frustration is growing on a Northeast Saskatchewan reserve.

The chief of the Kinistin Saulteaux Nation is being told to keep his word and resign.

Some disgruntled band members held a news conference Wednesday. Sandra Lumberjack, who organized the conference, said the issue goes back to a promise Chief Peter Nippi made last August.

“The Chief said if he didn't get the band out of debt by Dec. 1, he was going to resign,” she said.

That deadline has now passed and the band is carrying a debt of more than $600,000.

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Nippi said he wasn’t entirely sure he had made such a promise in the first place.

“I may have made those comments I don't recall, there were a lot of things we talked about. It was very heated at the time,” he said.

“The elders at the time told chief and council to stay on. And there was a petition at the time demanding council resign, but it was at the advice of the elders that council stay on.”

Nippi said the deficit is due to a funding shortfall from the government and that the council was working on a financial management plan.

While the deficit was sizable, he said it wasn’t a disaster for the reserve.

“There is a lot of drama going on, and I understand the peoples' concerns, but the facts are that there are no starving people in Kinistin,” said Nippi.

He said much of the drama is because of the fact that it’s an election year, adding it always seems about this time in the fall when there is this sort of political posturing.

“We have had band membership meetings, and have told band members where everything is at, and we will continue to do so in the future,” he said.

nmaxwell@panow.com