The past year in review is one that is marked with challenges, uncertainties and accomplishments. In 2004/05, the leadership, Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (“AMC”) management and staff worked diligently to implement Assembly resolutions, Executive Committee motions and organizational strategies.

In 2004/05, AMC held three (3) assemblies from April 2004 to March 2005. The assemblies were held in Opaskwayak Cree Nation, Norway House Cree Nation and Long Plains First Nation. During these assemblies the Chiefs-in-Assembly passed forty (40) resolutions that directed the Grand Chief and the Secretariat to address First Nation issues. A Resolutions Status Report for 2004/05 is included in the Annual Report package.

In addition to the assemblies, the Executive Council of Chiefs, the source of authority between assemblies, met six (6) times and passed thirty-eight (38) motions and numerous tasks were assigned by consensus to the Grand Chief and the Secretariat.

All Chiefs-in-Assembly resolutions and Executive Council motions are major decisions that the Grand Chief and Secretariat must act on immediately. Most resolutions and motions can be implemented immediately subject to the availability of resources, while others may take a number of months or years to implement.

One example of a Resolution that has taken time to implement is Resolution #MAR-01.01, which was carried in March 2001. The resolution is significant in that it approved all aspects of AMC’s Organization Strategy 2001, which is more commonly known as the restructuring strategy. The four key objectives of the strategy, which management continues to implement are:

1. To restructure the organization’s political structure:

• By redefining the role of the Executive Council – established a portfolio system for all Executive Council members;
• By having all First Nation citizens over the age of eighteen (18) elect the Grand Chief – proposed for the 2008 election; and
• By redefining the role of the Chiefs-in-Assembly – adopting a new resolutions process for all assemblies.

We will be presenting proposed constitutional amendments to the leadership to effect further change to the organization.

2. To reorganize the Secretariat by establishing a Research and Policy Development unit that is structured to address all First Nation common issues. The unit’s personnel will develop and implement strategies that prepare the Grand Chief in his efforts to lobby governments to effect positive change to government legislation and policies that affect all First Nation citizens’ lives.

AMC established the Research and Policy Development unit to ensure that First Nation issues are managed and resolved efficiently using a step-by-step process that includes:

(a) research;
(b) policy analysis;
(c) strategic and policy development; and
(d) developing lobbying strategies that the leadership implements.

3. To establish new non-political organizations to manage service delivery programs, such as the Human Resource Development (“HRD”) program and Manitoba First Nation Education Resource Centre (“MFNERC”) while ensuring that these organizations continue to remain at arms length to AMC.

Recently, the MFNERC was incorporated as a legal entity to provide services to First Nation Education Authorities and schools. The MFNERC will continue to remain connected at arms length to AMC. With regard to the HRD program, we are developing plans to set-up a new organization similar to MFNERC to manage the program.

4. To raise our profile in the First Nation and non-First Nation community by implementing a comprehensive Communication Strategy that keeps all AMC stakeholders informed of who we are and where we are going into the future. Some of the Communication strategy activities are Newsletters, advertising in local and mainstream publications, television ads, and community and urban centre consultation sessions.

We have raised the organization’s and the First Nation peoples’ profile to ensure that all stakeholders gain a better understanding of First Nation people and the key issues that affect our lives daily.

Another major resolution that has taken time to implement is Resolution #MAR-01-02. In this resolution, the Chief-in-Assembly approved the business plan to establish and build a Manitoba First Nation Government House. The main objectives of the business plan are:

(a) to purchase land in or near the City of Winnipeg,
(b) to secure a First Nation partner to develop and convert the land to reserve land; and
(c) to build a Manitoba First Nation Government House.

Recently, the Roseau River Ojibway Nation submitted an offer to purchase land in the St. Boniface area of Winnipeg. Once Roseau River’s offer is accepted, a partnership agreement between AMC and the First Nation will be formalized and the multi-step process to develop the land will be implemented.

Updates on other Chiefs-in-Assembly resolutions carried in 2004/05 are included in the Resolutions Status Report section of the Annual Report.

With respect to other organizational strategies that are developed and implemented annually to achieve the organization’s objectives, management must not only secure the required resources to achieve the organizational objectives we must also manage those resources effectively.

The leadership and staff of AMC are committed to achieving organizational success. The following is a brief overview of how the organization’s resources were managed during the past fiscal year.

Human Resources

AMC’s Human Resource (“HR”) objectives are:

1. To recruit and retain qualified employees;
2. To provide a safe & healthy workplace for our employees;
3. To maintain a comprehensive benefits package for all employees; and
4. To offer the opportunity for all employees to take advantage of training and career development courses.

Since the organization has been unable to secure multi-year funding, the greatest challenge in HR is to recruit qualified personnel that are seeking job security. With this uncertainty in funding it is difficult to recruit First Nation talent from the public and private sector. However, to date we have been successful in achieving our HR objectives.

To counter the difficulties we have in securing long-term funding, we implemented Treasury Board of Canada’s Rates of Pay scales. The federal employee pay scales are competitive with other levels of government and the private sector.

Financial Resources

AMC’s financial objectives are:

1. To secure adequate resources to fund AMC initiatives;
2. To maximize the use of all financial resources;
3. To maintain accurate accounting records of all funds;
4. To ensure that the organization follows all approved operating budgets; and
5. To retire the organization’s operating deficit.

In 2004/05, we maximized the use of the resources by expending our resources effectively, while earning a surplus of approximately $100k. One of the primary objectives in managing the financial resources is to retire the accumulated operating deficit, which was approximately $2.2 million in 1999. This deficit has now been reduced to $560k.

It is imperative that we retire our deficit to prove to creditors and investors that we have the capacity to manage our financial resources and are in a good financial position to build our Manitoba First Nation Government House.

Our greatest challenge as a political organization is to secure multi-year funding to finance the organization’s strategies and ongoing operating expenditures.

Currently, the HRD program is the only initiative that is funded by a multi-year agreement. Ninetyeight percent (98.0 %) of the HRD funds flow to sub-agreement holders, which includes First Nations and their affiliated organizations. Multi-year funding arrangements would enable management to retire the deficit timely and place AMC in a better position to recruit and retain First Nation talent from the public and private sectors.

Physical and Informational Resources

AMC’s Information Technology objectives are:

1. To ensure that AMC personnel are equipped with up-to-date computer hardware and software.
2. To establish a wide-area network that will link staff to First Nation communities and governments; and
3. To develop a data warehouse that houses relevant data including First Nation demographics, infrastructure, and education and employment statistics. This data will be collected, sorted, and analyzed to determine the current and future needs of all First Nations in this province.

AMC’s Communication objectives are:

1. To ensure that the leadership and their citizens are informed of progress achieved-to-date in all AMC initiatives;
2. To ensure that the non-First Nation community gains a better understanding of where, we as First Nation peoples, want to be in the future; and
3. To continue to raise our organization and peoples profile regionally, nationally and internationally.

Currently, AMC personnel have the tools, i.e., computer hardware and software they require to do their work. The local area network links all AMC personnel to each other while the internet links the organization to the rest of the world.

With respect to communications, the communications’ unit uses internal and external newsletters, quarterly newspapers, magazines – “Ogimaakaan”, television programming and annual reports to communicate progress on activities achieved-to-date to all AMC stakeholders.

Our greatest challenge in the communications’ area is responding to the negative press from the media.

Today, we provide more resources to the communications’ unit to enable them to address these serious issues. To achieve organizational success, we will continue to establish new and build-on existing relationships with all levels of governments, which include First Nation, federal, provincial, and municipal, and the private sector.

To conclude, we thank the leadership and staff for their support, commitment and hard work, and look forward to continuing the work that is required to improve the quality of life of First Nations people in Manitoba.