Message from the Vice President

Message from

the Vice President

Heather Hawkins

Vice President, Tahltan Central Government Greetings Tahltans!

Summer 2022 was definitely one for the books. A lot of wonderful work has been done and is still in progress. To begin, I would like to acknowledge and thank the previous Vice President, Ken Edzerza, for his service on the Tahltan Central Government (TCG) Board of Directors and to our Tahltan people.

I was so very elated when I learned about the TCG election results. It really is a privilege to be entrusted by the Tahltan people to protect our Tahltan rights and title over our entire territory. I am very grateful for your support, and I will not let you down. The four-day AGA was a great event full of updates and review. I want to thank our TCG staff for delivering another successful AGA. All of your hard work and dedication to our citizens does not go unnoticed. Every year the door prizes and entertainment are very much appreciated.

Following the election, my family and I had a few days of excellent fishing in the Stikine River, and we were able to harvest our winter supply of enacoga, now half dried and jarring. Shortly thereafter, we had our first TCG Board meeting.

As a new board, we had a couple of days of great introductions and a review of where our government is at in all levels of productivity and internal engagement, communications with industry, and areas that are in development to serve our citizens at the best capacity.

Most recently, I had the opportunity to participate in a site tour with our new Lands Director, Employment & Contracting Director, Tourism Director, and Shared Engagement Agreement (SER) Coordinator. We visited thirteen different sites. These site visits are to ensure that the engagement and relationships with our government are happening and productive so that our Tahltan people benefit from all opportunities that these projects can offer. It was great to see the Tahltans that are employed at these sites. We fully intend on ensuring that our voices are heard in the creation of policy on what areas can be staked in our territory.