Housing will be one of the challenges facing the newly elected Squamish Nation Council.
Eight new councillors out of 16 were elected Sunday night.
A total of 60 candidates ran for council, which serves a four year term.
The eight new councillors are Dustin Rivers (known as Khelsilem), Jacob Lewis, Marcus Wooden, Deanna Lewis, Kristen Rivers, Brandon Darbyshire-Joseph, Joyce Williams and Orene Askew. All of the eight newly elected councillors are under 36 years old.
Unseated were Chief Dick Williams and incumbent councillors Tony Moody, Ann Whonnock, Veronica Baker and Danielle Mellish.
Eight candidates ran for position of band manager, which was won by Jennifer Campo.
Campo has been an employee of the Nation in the emergency services department since 1995.
The band is the only First Nation in Canada that elects a band manager.
First-time politician and longtime activist Rivers topped the votes with 634 out of 1,360 ballots cast. There were 2,956 registered voters.
“Our people have voted for change,” Rivers said in a release after the results came in.
“Never before have so many new councillors been elected.”
Rivers co-organized a New Nine campaign, a slate of nine candidates chosen through a community survey. Eight of those on the slate now sit on council for a four-year term. Only Capilano University student Taylor George-Hollis was left off the council.
Re-elected Squamish Nation spokesman and hereditary Chief Ian Campbell thanked his supporters and family after the election results were announced and acknowledged that the previous Nation leadership needed to improve in some areas.
“I know we need to do better as communicators,” he said in a video posted to Facebook Sunday night.
There had been criticism from members and candidates in the run-up to the election that the Nation leadership was not including membership in major decisions. He also hinted that the campaign had gotten personal.
“I know there has been a lot of hurt in the community and a lot of lateral violence so we need to address that to inspire our people,” he added.
Lateral violence is displaced violence directed against one's peers rather than adversaries.
“We are family. We can do this. We deserve a better future…. We are going to keep the canoe moving forward.”
Housing has been a significant theme in the run-up to the election and members will be looking for action on this issue from the new council.
The Nation has a total of 4,047 members. Of those, 2,076 live on-reserve, while 1,971 live off-reserve.
Squamish Nation member Charlene Frank-Joseph, 38, accuses the band of allotting housing unfairly.
She and her family of five — two adults, two teenagers, and an infant — rent a North Shore basement suite. Her housing is cramped and inadequate, she says.
She wants one of the Nation’s Squamish condos.
Frank-Joseph has been a caregiver for 11 years and is currently caring for two Nation members in her home who aren't related to her. She has gone before chiefs and council to plead that her family be given housing, but to no avail, she said.
"I am feeling at the end of my rope," she said.
Frank-Joseph believes she should be eligible for emergency housing.
That housing is being given to members who are in good favour with the chiefs and council, not by need, she alleges.
She questions why the Nation hasn't allocated any new housing in years.
"Everybody knows somebody who is going through some sort of housing issue," Frank-Joseph said. "It is bigger than my situation."
After the election, she said she was hopeful the new councillors would make a difference.
“Only time will tell if positive change will come,” she said on Monday.
As a council candidate, Rivers promised to approve $1 million of own-source revenue to be set aside in the annual budget for a housing fund that members can apply to borrow against for personal loans up to $200,000 to construct a home on-reserve.
"We have many members ready and willing to self-finance but we need a council that is ready to take action," Rivers said, prior to the election.
He said he plans to also bring forward a resolution calling for a task force to create a five, 10, and 15-year plan to fix the issues with housing.
"I would ask we look at purpose-built rental, social housing, rent-to-own, and more, along with cost projections and options for financing the proposals. I would ask this work be completed within four months and then ask members to give input on which proposal they want implemented."
The band had a budget of $87 million for 2016, $17 million of which came from transfer payments from the federal government, according to Nation financial statements.
