FORT WILLIAM FIRST NATION – Fort William First Nation’s new chief and council were sworn in on Sunday and are ready to get to work with the community.
Michele Solomon, who had edged out the win by 12 votes, said she was glad the swearing-in ceremony was able to be done in a good way.
“This is the day that we take our oath of office to the community and to the people, so, people, myself and the councillors, are here with special people that will escort us in this process and there are sponsors in taking this oath of office,” she said.
“And so, this is our ceremony to say this is what we commit to do over the next four years and also to say thank you to the people.”
Joining Solomon on council is Jennelle Charlie, Leo Bannon, Sheldon Bannon, Bess Legarde, Sherry Lynn Pelletier, Desiree Morisseau-Shields, Jacob McKay, Yvette A. Greenwald, Kyle MacLaurin, Bonnie A. Pelletier, Brian Ludwigsen and Peter Collins who was the band’s most recent chief before Solomon.
“I think that we all come with some really special gifts and we all have a lot of amazing knowledge to bring,” said Solomon. “So, I think that you know, this is a really amazing opportunity for us to do some great work for the people.”
Solomon said that council has already had its first meeting where they outlined what they see as their priorities while in office.
“We each have different priorities and we'll be taking those things that we feel are important to the people and getting some feedback from them, so this is really a dialogue,” she said.
“Having that opportunity to do some visioning and some planning for the Community was one of my priority and it was certainly a priority for lots of the Council members, and so I think that we're off to a really good start.”
