Ottawa installs manager for West Point First Nation

The federal Indian and Northern Affairs Department has stepped in to resolve a leadership dispute at the West Point First Nation near Hay River, N.W.T., after band councillors ousted their chief in November.

Since council removed Chief Karen Felker and replaced her with a new chief, Felker said many of the band's affairs have stalledand its financesfallen into disorder.

The department has now appointed an accountant from Yellowknife to run the band's day-to-day administration and handle its financial records. George Cleary, the director of Indian and Inuit Services in the N.W.T., said the department has heard concerns that some people are spending the band's money without authorization.

"If it was just a governance issue, we would have no grounds to bring in a third-party manager," Cleary said Tuesday. "But because of the financial problems that the First Nation has encountered, we saw no other alternative."

Cleary said this is only the second time in his 11 years with the department that he has had to bring in an independent manager.

The department will hold a meeting later this month with the 73-member band to discuss the latest development and talk about what the First Nation needs to do before the department gives control back to the chief and council.

Cleary said he wants the band to develop and ratify an election code that formally lays out the election process, as well as the proper way to remove a chief from office, then hold a new election.

Felker, who has not been shyabout voicing her displeasure with the band's leadership issues since her removal, said she is relieved Ottawa has stepped in to take control of the situation.

"It shouldn't have had to get to this point, but it did," Felker said.

"There has to be accountability for what happened in the community. What happened in November, that process wasn't followed properly. It was just done on the fly It wasn't fair to the membership as a whole."

Felker said she hopes the councillors who removed her from office will take leadership more seriously, now that Indian Affairs has taken over. She said many programs and services have stalled since the leadership dispute began, and the band has lost time negotiating an access and benefits agreement for the proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline.