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Thank You on Behalf of the LBNT Team!

On behalf of the Lake Babine Nation Treaty team- I would like to thank you for attending the AGA and for your continued supports of the LBNT. Throughout the last year we have faced much as a nation. Condolences to those who have lost loved ones, congratulations to all the couples celebrating anniversaries and wedding blessings, congratulations to all the graduates and to those who have returned to school.

Since the last AGA, much work has been done with Treaty. This year I have had the privilege of working with Council Darcy Dennis- Treaty Portfolio and Council Darren Patrick- Governance and Education Portfolio. Together we have accomplished a lot and have much more to do. The two council have taken on the negotiations side of Treaty which has been wonderful as we are in the process of hiring a Chief Negotiator. Any questions pertaining to negotiations may go to Darcy and Darren.

I have been very busy with the admin and management side of the Treaty. A large portion of my time goes to funding, budgets, reports, community engagement, proposals for projects and research. In March through to July 2016 I assisted finance with the BCTC budget and reports. In that time- LBNT also attended the Arch Conference in White Horse Yukon. This was a special event as LBNT’s Arch Dig from 2015 was selected to be presented at the conference. There was almost 400 people in attendance and our presentation was a huge success. Arch digs are vital to our nation and territory as they confirm our existence and ownership of the lands. Together with UNBC, we have completed 4 arch digs and we are now in the reporting process. We hope to identify more areas of interest for the upcoming year. Other work with UNBC includes the archives, workshops and genealogy to name a few things. The researchers are namely responsible for the UNBC work.

Since April, we have had research trips to Vancouver, Victoria and Prince George. These are crucial for gathering restricted documents and registered information that assist the nation in title and/or specific claims. Any and all information collected stays within the treaty staff and office unless directed to share it with a person or organization. The researchers are trained and qualified to do this work and they work alongside with lawyers to ensure all documents, interviews etc. are court ready. I commend them on their jobs.

Other work I am involved with is the TRM (Treaty Related Measures) Land Use Planning Project. This is an 18 month split fiscal year project through AANDC (Aboriginal Affairs Northern Development Canada). The team includes George Nicholson (lawyer), John Munro (GIS, Mapper), Marvin, Roger and myself. We have a specific set of objectives and within those we visit the members to get their input of the LUP. We have started our final round of community meetings and we will be done by mid-November. The Final draft LUP will be presented at the end of November. It has been an amazing 1.5 years working with the members on this project. Lands work will not end- this is just the beginning.

In addition to the Lands TRM- Treaty has acquired a Governance TRM which I am working with Council Darren. Over the next few months we will be at the TRM community meetings to address Governance and begin this important work. In 2012 LBNT did some work on a Governance structure and this is what we will be working from. We look forward to discussing this with the members. We had Blake Bouchard and Paul Patterson assist us in some of the Governance objectives as well as George Nicholson and we are scheduled to complete this project by January 2017. Again this TRM is through AANDC funds.

I have received grant funding for other projects which I hand to the respective departments to utilize. Such things as culture, tradition, digitization and arts are all distributed accordingly and once the projects are complete- I do the reporting on them. It is always a positive thing to receive extra funding to promote learning and culture in our nation.

The LBNT hosted a Lake/Land tour in August. This included guests from BCTC, BC and Canada, The purpose was to see firsthand the ITA parcels, meet and greet the members during harvest season and to get a better understanding of our territory. It was a success and I am still getting positive feedback from that trip. Each month there are Tri-Partite meetings- the tour replaced LBNT’s meeting for August. There are Tri-Partite meetings each month and each party host’s 4 each. This is a negotiations aspect of treaty.

I sent Marvin to a Digitization Conference in June at the UBC in Vancouver. LBNT was selected to sit on the Northern Panel for our Digitization project I ran in 2014. He presented very well at the conference. I am thankful to my staff for assisting me with all LBNT work. They are a huge help to me and the team. We are still restructuring the LBNT and hope to have the vacant positons filled in the near future.

Recently I have started assisting other departmental managers and directors with aspects pertaining to lands and/or treaty. Building these working relationships is a strength for all involved. Furthermore, LBNT helps the school districts and other organizations with Treaty presentations. They also attend meetings and events to record them. I thank them for this as it is above their responsibilities.

There will be much more work happening with respect to research, interviews, TRM work and the restructuring of LBNT. I look forward to continue working with Council Darcy and Darren as well as the LBN Administration. I thank you all and if you have any questions, you may contact me at the LBNT office.

 

Respectfully,

Cyndi Lowley- Patrick, B.GS.

Treaty Manager/ Governance Coordinator

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EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY - Administrative Assistant

Lake Babine Nation requires an Administrative Assistant for the Fisheries Department. The Administrative Assistant will
be responsible for the wide variety of administrative duties in support of the Fisheries Director.

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