A group of approximately 10 band members and elders blockaded the McLeod Lake
Indian Band office on Thursday, demanding the immediate resignation of the chief and council.
The group says that Chief Derek Orr and the former council breached the trust of the band's membership by signing a revenue-sharing agreement with Terrane Metals - now owned by Thompson Creek Metals -for the Mt. Milligan copper-gold mine.
We're going to keep it locked down, Justin Chingee said. We're going to be here until they resign. The chief and council have been signing agreements without asking [band members] for ratification.
While the protesters allowed the band office staff to enter, Chingee said they plan to block Orr and the band council from entering the building.
On Thursday evening, the protesters were issued a court injunction, demanding they leave the band office, Chingee said. However, as of Friday morning, the protesters had not left the band office and police had not attempted to enforce the injunction.
We're peacefully protesting. Nothing has been damaged. We're not going in the building, he said.
We're sitting pat, we're not going anywhere.
North District RCMP spokesperson Cst. Lesley Smith said police were on scene,
monitoring the situation.
The protest is peaceful at this time, Smith said. We have eight to 10 protesters on the site and the band is taking legal steps.
Calls to Orr about the blockade were not returned as of press time.
The McLeod Lake Indian Band is made up of approximately 500 members, of which about 100 live on reserves near the unincorporated village of McLeod Lake, 150 kilometres north of Prince George. The remaining members live in Prince George, Mackenzie, Chetwynd and across North America.
On Aug. 25, 2010, the band's chief and council signed the Mt. Milligan Mine Socio-Economic Agreement with Terrane Metals and a royalty revenue sharing agreement with the provincial government. Opponents of the deal say they weren't properly consulted before Orr and the council of the day signed the agreement.
In an April 18, 2012, letter to Orr and the McLeod Lake council, 13 band elders demanded the resignation of Orr and the council members who were serving during 2010.
We the elders of the McLeod Lake Indian Band agree as a majority that Derek Orr, Jenine Solonas, Fred Inallie Jr., Yasmin Prince and Destiny Bear have violated your position of trust with the Tsek'ehne people, the letter said. You went against our traditions and customs when you signed an agreement with Terrane Metals in August of 2010 regarding the Mt. Milligan Project. You violated our tradition and custom when you neglected to share the decision-making process with the membership and ignored the advice of your elders.
According to a confidential briefing document provided to band members, the agreement with Terrane Metals included a $1.5 million upfront payment to the band, plus a further $24.5 million in payments over the 23-year life of the mine. According to the document, the money would be put into a trust fund to be used for cultural enhancement, social programming, language studies, summer camps, youth training, elders' programs, traditional health care programs and protection of the band's traditional territory through the funding of a land referral office.
On Dec. 1, 2010, however, Orr and the McLeod Lake council approved a motion to pay their honoraria out of the Terrane Metals payment. Minutes from the special meeting show the council voted unanimously to pay themselves $309,415 in monthly honoraria for the 2011 fiscal year out of the Terrane Metals money. Previously, the chief and council were paid out of a trust fund established in 2000 as part of the band's Treaty 8 settlement.
However, on Aug. 18, 2010, the courts upheld a decision by the trust's board of trustees not to pay the chief and council honoraria out of the trust, because of a deficit in the trust's value.
You abused the power that you have been given by changing your honorarium policy so that you could be paid directly from the proceeds of the Mt. Milligan Agreement, the group of elders wrote in their letter. You have displayed selfishness and very little respect for the rights of your traditional territory, membership, elders, neighbours and future generations.
The blockade on Thursday is just the latest in a series of protests by opponents of the Mt. Milligan deal. Members held small protests at the McLeod Lake Indian Band office in January and at a March 23 band meeting in Prince George.
Lack of transparency?
Former Terrane Metals negotiating committee member Verne Solonas was one of the band members protesting at the Prince George meeting in March.
They say everything is transparent, Solonas said. We asked for the audited financial statements. They said we'd have to sign a confidentiality agreement before they would release them. That is unprecedented.
In a copy of a March 8, 2012 e-mail from McLeod Lake Indian Band manager Adele Chingee to Justin Chingee, the band requested he sign a confidentially agreement before viewing band financial documents.
MLIB is willing to share the 2009 and 2010 MLIB financial statements with you, but first you are required to sign a confidentially agreement with the band, Adele Chingee wrote. The confidentially agreement sets out the conditions that you will be keeping the information private, and also forbids you from distributing the information with other First Nations and organizations.
They seem to do things behind closed doors, elder Albert Isadore said at the protest in Prince George. There are a lot of concerns.
Former chief Harry Chingee said he is also concerned about the band.
Really, we've got no leadership whatsoever, Chingee said. We don't really know what is going on. They ignore the elders.
Solonas said he and others have contacted the RCMP and Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada with their concerns, but were told it's a civil matter.
Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada spokesperson Genevive Guibert said the federal government doesn't get involved in how First Nations use funding from non-government sources.
If it is federal funds they can file a complaint with the department. The department will conduct an investigation, Guibert said.
As soon as it's private funds ... then the department is not involved. Then it's between the members and the chief and council.
If the First Nations members are not satisfied with the response of the council, they can seek to resolve the situation through the courts, she added.
RCMP spokesperson Cst. Lesley Smith said Mackenzie RCMP investigated the complaints against Orr and the McLeod Lake Indian Band council and found no evidence of wrongdoing.
A criminal code investigation was opened last fall, but no evidence was obtained... to indicate misuse of funds, Smith said. That investigation has been concluded.
Orr responds
The decision to sign the revenue sharing agreements with Terrane Metals and the provincial government came after a lengthy community consultations, band chief Orr said in a May 14 interview on the issue.
Mt. Milligan was a very, very heated topic in our community. We had community consultations meetings, he said. I asked for support to support the mine, and I asked for support to sign the deal. [By] April 25, 2010 we had the support from our members.
A total of 142 band members attended a series of four meetings from March 4 to March 7, 2010, he said. Band members were phoned individually to let them know the meetings were happening.
On April 25, 2010, Orr publicly announced the band's support for the project in a joint press conference with Terrane Metals.
The prospect of an agreement was discussed during quarterly meetings held for members in Prince George, Vancouver and McLeod Lake since 2008, Orr said. Information was also available to members on the band's website and through the Travelling Feather member magazine.
The band's audited financial statements are presented to the band membership every year at the annual general meeting, Orr added.
We have an independent, third-party auditor. There has been no mismanagement of money, he said.
In 2008, when he and many of the current councillors were elected, the band was in a dire financial situation. The band had a $8.1 million deficit in the Treaty 8 trust.
By January 2009, we were over $15 million in debt. We had almost no contracts for our band businesses... poor record management... no in-house financial controller, he said. In 2010 our audit was on time for the first time in seven years.
In 2008, the band had been forced to cut its budget by 41 per cent to deal with the looming economic crisis. Since then the band has been able to reduce its debt by $10.8 million and reduced the Treaty 8 trust deficit by nearly $7 million, he said.
In addition, the band's companies are turning a profit again.
The decision to pay the chief and council honoraria from the Terrane Metals initial payment came following a court battle over the use of Treaty 8 funds, he said.
We'd never received any chief and council honoraria at that point, he said.
Since then, two trust funds have been established for the provincial and Thompson Creek Metals revenue, he said. Those trust funds are overseen by boards of trustees.
The band has been able to fund a new daycare centre and has plans for a boat launch and cultural camps this summer, he said.
We're working toward the betterment of the whole McLeod Lake Indian Band. The majority of the band members support us, Orr said. This is strictly political.
He and the other members of 2008-11 council were all returned to office in the band's June 3, 2011 election.
Some of the key opponents of the Mt. Milligan deal, including Verne Solonas, Justin Chingee and Albert Isadore, ran unsuccessfully in the election.
I've got nothing to hide, Orr said. I don't think there are any fences to mend. We still have some very good support.
A spokesperson for Thompson Creek Metals could not be reached as of press time.
A lucrative deal
According to the briefing document provided to McLeod Lake Indian Band members, the agreement with Terrane Metals includes the direct award of contracts to McLeod Lake Indian Band businesses, worth an estimated $25 million to $30 million. The band stands to gain millions more through employment and additional potential contracts for band businesses, the document adds.
In a letter to band members, Orr estimated the value of the deals between $60 million and $120 million, plus additional contract revenue for the band's businesses: Duz Cho Construction, Duz Cho Logging and Summit Pipeline Service.
In a statement earlier this month, Thompson Creek Metals CEO Kevin Loughery said the Mt. Milligan mine, located between Fort St. James and Mackenzie and 155 kilometres north of Prince George, remains on schedule to begin production in the first quarter of 2014.
The $1.5 billion mine is expected to last 22 years based on the current reserve calculation and produce 81 million pounds of copper and 194,500 ounces of gold over that time.
Through the provincial revenue sharing agreement, the McLeod Lake Indian Band will receive 15 per cent of the provincial royalties on the mine -worth an estimated $35 million to $70 million over the life of the mine.
-- Williams, Citizen staff
