Attawapiskat First Nation - Governance

Governance

Attawapiskat was officially recognized by the Government of Canada under the Treaty 9 document. Although the original document was signed in the years 1905 and 1906, it only included the communities south of the Albany River in northern Ontario. Attawapiskat was included when adhesions were made to the treaty to include the communities north of the Albany River. Attawapiskat was numbered as Indian Reserve 91 as part of Treaty 9. The treaty set aside reserve lands on the Ekwan River, a parallel river north of the Attawapiskat River that drains into James Bay. In time, it was decided by local leaders to establish the community in its present location on the Attawapiskat River instead. This was due to an existing trading post and better access to James Bay shipping routes from this location. The new reserve was then numbered Indian Reserve 91A.

Local leadership is an elected government of a chief, a deputy chief and twelve councilors who serve three year terms. The current chief (2012) is Theresa Spence. The band council was under Third Party Intervention for part of 2011-2012. While the federal government had preemptively removed the third-party manager, a Federal Court decision later deemed the Third Party Management arrangement 'unreasonable'. The Attawapiskat band council agreed to a comprehensive audit, covering the years 2005 to 2011. The results have not yet been made public, and are pending review by the Aboriginal Affairs Department and Health Canada. A copy of the audit findings was leaked to the public in January 2013. In it the auditors found "an average of 81 per cent of files did not have adequate supporting documents and over 60 per cent had no documentation of the reason for payment." Additionally, the letter delivered to Chief Spence stated the audit revealed "no evidence of due diligence on the part of Attawapiskat of funding provided by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada for housing projects and Health Canada for health-related projects."

Attawapiskat First Nation is part of the regional Mushkegowuk Council, an Aboriginal political group representing the James Bay Mushkego or Omushkego Cree. The community and the Council are together represented under the Political Territorial Organization, Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN), which represents 50 First Nations in Northern Ontario. NAN is the representative political body for the First Nations that are part of Treaty 9. The current Grand Chief of Nishnabwe-Aski Nation is Stan Beardy. The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) is the national representative organization of the 630 First Nation's communities in Canada.

The federal and provincial representation of reserve is within the riding of Timmins—James Bay. The current Provincial Member of Parliament (MPP) is Gilles Bisson (NDP) and federal member of parliament is Charlie Angus (NDP).