Key Priorities of Home Fire
Home Fire is a plan to empower our community to build unity and strengthen the way we care and support each other so no person is left behind.
Key Focus Areas: Community Services
Improved Health Care Services
Increased Support for those wtih Addictions
Addressing the Housing Shortage
Supporting our Elders
Supporting our Youth
Keeping Families Together
Improving Community Safety
Key Priority: Transparent and Accountable Leadership
Immediate Financial Audit of all Nation businesses and departments and of Chief and Council
Delegating a community-led task force to modernize the Elections Protection Act
Norway House departments, businesses and Chief and Council expected to report to community regularly
Opportunity for public input before major community decisions made.
Key Priority: Supporting our Urban Community members
Consultation with Winnipeg members for input on what services will benefit them at the Taylor Avenue site.
Dedicated community navigators to serve members living in Winnipeg and in other cities to connect to local services.
Home Fire: Supporting our Relatives with Addiction
My plan to support our relatives in the community and off reserve with each phase of their recovery journey.
Home Fire: Our Traditions Shaping Our Future
Transparent Leadership Accountable to the Community
The message I wish to give is that Norway House is open for business. Our potential as a community is endless and with a unified vision we can create a better future for the next generation. However, the only way we will gain credibility as a Nation is that we have transparent leaders that work for the community's best interest rather than for personal gain. Every person in the community deserves to know what Chief and Council, Norway House departments and band-owned businesses are doing with their finances and whether they are accountable to their promises. As Chief, I am not above accountability. I expect and welcome the scrutiny of the community on my performance as Chief. I will not tolerate anyone siphoning for personal gain any the resources and finances that are meant for the good of the community.
Home Fire recognizes that a healthy community is one that operates to a high ethical standard and whose leaders are accountable to the community. It also recognizes that each person has an equal voice and an equal right to question leaders without fear of reprisals. A healthy community has the confidence that leadership is listening and taking the community's advice seriously.
For too long, there has been leaders that failed to take their duty of accountability to the community seriously. This must change. Home Fire will restore trust in leadership and promote serious dialogue on creating a better community for the future.
As Chief I will:
1). Order a financial audit of all Norway House organizations (Chief and Council, departments and band-owned businesses) and report its findings to the community. The community deserves to know how funds meant for the nation are being spent.
2). For decisions that affect the community, I will direct that a public consultation and feedback process is used. I will expect all Norway House organizations to provide regular public updates so the community is aware of their activities.
3). Ensure that no person, including myself is above scrutiny from the community. Our bylaws must be applied consistently and no person will be exempt. A key action I will take is to ensure Chief and Council must not misuse the electoral process in our community; anyone disregarding this will face severe sanctions.
Home Fire: Reclaiming our Health Care Sovereignty
Everyone deserves to receive the best quality medical care when they need it. In 2024 our community replaced the Norway House Indian Hospital with the Kinosao Sipi Nanatawiwekamik Health Centre of Excellence. But the work does not end there. It is top priority that we can have our health centre designated as a fully licenced hospital. My vision is that we will have a full service hospital that is fully staffed with qualified health professionals with deep roots in the community.
Indigenous people are severely underrepresented in health care professions especially as physicians and specialists. While in the short term we will have to attract outside medical professionals to work in our community, the long term goal is to support our community members wanting to enter into a health care profession to come back to work in our community once they graduate. Having our own community members who are qualified to work in our future hospital will allow us to reclaim our health sovereignty.
As Chief, my role is to bring Health Canada, ISC and Manitoba Health to the table on how we all can work to make the designation of a hospital take place in a reasonable timeframe.
The key areas that Home Fire will support will be:
1) Supporting our youth with the necessary support to attend the post-secondary program of their choice and ensure they have what they need to be successful in their studies.
2) Ensuring that for our most vulnerable relatives, especially Elders, that they have the necessary support from the community to promote their well-being (i.e. home upgrades, in-home support, transportation etc.)
3) For our urban members and those who must leave the community for medical treatments, Home Fire will be there for them so they are supported.
Home Fire ensures no person is left behind when they become ill. In our traditional communities, the vulnerable were taken care of. This is the vision of Home Fire that each person is supported in their health with the compassion and unity of the community.
Home Fire: Supporting our Loved Ones with Addiction
Addiction does not develop overnight and to overcome it, the individual requires long-term sustained support. Our community has been under siege from addiction and it requires an immediate, yet thoughtful response. It is commonly accepted that many Indigenous people become trapped in addiction because of disconnection from land and culture as well as personal and intergenerational trauma. There are calls for Norway House to build its own treatment centre. While its a good idea, it will take several years for a treatment centre to become operational. Even more so, for us to repeat the same cookie cutter solution when its known to have limited success will not make a meaningful difference in the lives of those trapped in addiction.
Home Fire proposes a more broad solution and something that no Manitoba First Nation has done before. It takes two things that are important to us as Indigenous people which is connection to the land and the support of a compassionate community. Across North America, the concept of recovery communities is becoming more popular because they have proven to be successful. This is because they are intended for long-term support. This model will be introduced to Norway House.
It will be an ambitious plan, however it ties in with the other elements of Home Fire that are being introduced. Every effort will be made for those who are recovering from addiction to have improved life circumstances in their recovery: access to education, improved housing conditions, support to keep the family together, access to culture and land-based healing and so forth. Support will continue for as long as the person requires it; it will not be limited to a treatment centre stay.
The key areas that Home Fire will address are:
1) The Health Centre (soon to become a hospital) must include an addiction medicine department including the ability to provide medically-supervised withdrawal.
2) The immediate introduction of a long-term sustained recovery-based support program. This is based on what other jurisdictions in western Canada have introduced successfully into addiction care.
3) Coordination of community supports for those in recovery from addiction to promote healing and improved life circumstances.