Advance polling for Fort Albany First Nation’s band government is taking place today.
Voters can come to Peetabeck Academy School Gymnasium between noon till 4 p.m. It is mandatory to wear a mask and there will be a 30 per cent capacity in the room.
The election day will be on Saturday, Aug. 22, at Peetabeck Academy School Gymnasium from 9 a.m. till 8 p.m.
Candidates are running for chief, deputy chief and seven councillor positions. The election term is two years.
The candidates for chief are Robert Nakogee, Elizabeth Kataquapit and Simeon Solomon.
Current Chief Leo Metatawabin, Yvonne Metat and Charlotte Nakochee are running for a deputy chief position.
Candidates running for councillor positions are Angela Lagasse, Hannah Nakogee, Pascal Spence, Claudette Solomon, Joseph Sutherland, Joseph Scott, Xavier Inishinapay, Edmond Edwards, Leo Loone, Arthur Nakogee, Madeline Scott, Kaitlyn Knapaysweet and Troy Williams.
“As a chief for the last two years, it was quite an experience for me to observe the politics that’s been happening down south and I decided to step down to run as a deputy chief,” said Metatawabin.
“We need to finalize all the work that we’re trying to do in terms of addressing the issues of Ring of Fire, the new legislation that came out, Bill 197, and to strategize into the future with the comprehensive community planning. There’s work to be done locally as well.”
According to the Facebook notice, voters who are not self-isolating can come on the election day between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Those who are in self-isolation for 14 days are asked to come from 6 p.m. till 8 p.m. Voting will be held at 30 per cent capacity and people must wear a face mask.
There are about 5,000 people, half of whom live off reserve in cities likes Timmins, Cochrane, Kapuskasing, Ottawa and Vancouver, Metatawabin said.
“We’re still following the election code that’s outdated. We’ve been trying to revise it for the last couple of years to bring it up to 2020. We did work on it and with this pandemic, it ceased everything. We were unable to do the membership, so we were stuck with that election code, so we proceeded with that,” Metatawabin said in response to whether off-reserve members are able to vote.
He said off-reserve members may have tried voting by mail-in ballots in the past but it "may have been too slow or took too long with the standard telephone service at that time."
"But the community’s telecommunications is upgraded now with fibre optic. This will speed up the process and we can address about ballots in a digital technological fashion."
“Hopefully, in next election, we’re going to use a new election code so that off-reserve people can vote," Metatawabin said. "We need to modernize our local election code, from Indian Act control to First Nation self-government control, in order to accommodate our off-reserve memberships."
