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Sentinel
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Northern
Years est. 1954
www.northernsentinel.com
Volume 60 No. 34
Haisla council pay disclosed Cameron Orr Newly published information showing the remuneration of First Nation political leaders has shown how much Haisla Nation Council members earn. The information has been posted online by the federal Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. Chief Councillor Ellis Ross takes a $75,000 salary. Deputy Chief Councillor Taylor Cross, for eight months, earned $21,039.46. Salary among the councillors wasn’t uniform. Henry Amos earned a $41,208.46 salary based on the public disclosure, the highest among the council. That is for 12 months on the council. Russel Ross Jr. and Joanne Ross each earned $37,746.97 for 12 months. Margaret Grant was paid $16,399.91. Godfrey Grant Jr. was paid $15,899.91. Lucille Harms earned $15,399.91. For the shorter term councillors, Willard Grant earned $12,000 even for eight months. Crystal Smith for eight months was paid $25,074.80. A request for clarification on how council remuneration is set was not immediately answered from the Haisla Nation. The salaries do not include expenses, which for the entirety of the council came to $38,301.61. The salary details were posted on July 31 this year. For comparison, the yearly salary for the District of Kitimat Mayor is currently $29,880. Councillors for the District earn $12,286. Haisla Nation financial statements are also disclosed, showing a 2014 revenue of $46,032,080 with $22,635,438 in expenses, leaving a surplus of $23,396,642. That amount exceeds the budgeted budget shortfall of $295,726 for the year, which is mainly thanks to a far larger than budgeted “other income” line item of 35,339,867. It is not explained in the documents what that income would refer to. The total registered population of the Haisla Nation is 1,812. Of those, 644 are registered as living on reserve. The Haisla also hold $5,778,050 in investments in regional LNG partnerships and regional LNG development joint ventures. Based on statements filed so far, salaries among B.C. First Nations ranged from the high of the Snuneymuxw First Nation near Nanaimo, where one councillor was paid $315,000, to the low of the Shackan Indian Band near Spences Bridge and Merritt, where the chief collected $13,000 and the two councillors received $9,100. - Files from The Langley Times
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
1.30 INCLUDES TAX
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It’s never too hot to have fun. This group of kids were more than happy to splash for the camera on a roasting August afternoon earlier this month. Cameron Orr
Council divided on Riverbrook Cameron Orr Just as with the Kingfisher Development Corporation town home proposal, some on council don’t see any value in increasing density, in light of the Riverbrook Estates proposal for Liard Street. Leonard Kerkhoff presented an updated look at the proposal and some changes made to the plans in light of some concerns voiced earlier in the process. The potential rezoning for the land which would allow staged development of detached housing, apartment buildings and townhouses, has reached second reading but not after Phil Germuth voiced his reasons against scrapping the proposal all together. Germuth’s arguments followed similar lines of his previous concerns, that Kitimat doesn’t need a boost to housing density. “There’s only one reason you take
“Not very long ago we were being slammed for not having enough housing in Kitimat.” a plot of land made for 80 units and put 217 in there,” he said. “I still believe the developer can achieve a healthy, respectful profit margin by leaving the zoning as is and building a combination of possible ranchers and bungalows.” The density as proposed is too much for comfort for him. “This doesn’t fit in with what Kitimat needs, there’s way too many units within one small area,” he said, also saying that it’s all speculation in anticipation of future major projects in Kitimat. However Mary Murphy had a dif-
ferent approach, pointing out how quickly Kitimat became tied-up with lack of available housing. “Not very long ago we were being slammed for not having enough housing in Kitimat, and we were dealing with that all the time,” she said. “I think we need to let this process go forward and take their statements and decide exactly how we feel after all the public has put in their input.” The proponent held an information session last Tuesday, which is in addition to the municipal public hearings. Germuth was not swayed and said there is still lots of private land to be developed in town, and many properties that should stand for re-development before the town should allow high density neighbourhoods. Other councillors had different ideas. Continued on page 2
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