Peguis winter carnival brought people out for fun, food and spectacular events

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Published: 10 March 2024

By James Wastasecoot 
The highlight of this year’s Winter Carnival was the Friday night performance of NorthsideBaby, a rapper from northern Alberta’s Dene Thá First Nation. But there was plenty of fun and frolics going on in numerous venues throughout the weekend. And the weather was nice.  
“There was something for everyone,” said organizer and Rec Director Jonathan Flett. “It turned  out better than I thought it would.” 
Junior B’s played Norway House Cree Nation Flames on Saturday, drawing 1,200 fans who loudly supported their team to victory (see story in this section). Another highlight, the Indian Car contest, renamed this year to the “Native Car,” for reasons unknown, was conducted outside on the parking lot. “It was hilarious. If I hadn’t seen it for myself, I wouldn’t have believed you could squeeze 15 Indians in a Chevy Malibu in 22 seconds,” said spectator Wayne Wilson. But that was the youth event. The adult category failed – bigger people – well, there’s only so much room in a midsize car. Fittingly, the Indian car was dented and showing a bit of rust. 
Did you know that our ancestors threw tires? Yep. It’s in the “traditional games” so it must be true. Along with the axe throwing, the tires were thrown just a few steps from the Arena entrance. They lost one axe in the snow, so keep an eye out. 
Arm wrestling is always a favourite, moderated by Brittney and Cory Sutherland. Two stalwarts of the sport who’ve made it popular in Peguis.  There were plenty of constants in every age category. The weight-lifting is another popular event – held this year in the Multiplex gym, coordinated by Edgar Stevenson.  

At Lake St. Andrews there was a fish derby. Many contestants made the trip and came away with prizes. A volleyball tournament was held at the Peguis Central School gym where teams battled it out for prizes and for the sheer love of the sport, thanks to people like Lezley Sutherland who still plays and coaches. 
On Sunday, there suddenly appeared women who seemed overdressed for the carnival. One wondered what the tall, beautiful woman in heels and make up was
doing at the Peguis Winter Carnival. Was she lost? No, it was the Drag Queen contest, another fan favourite. Reina Traverse is a Drag Queen who MC’d the Peguis Drag Queen Contest at the Peguis Multiplex on Sunday. Reina lives and works in Winnipeg as a drag queen full time at Club Happenings in Osborne Village. The club website features photos and videos of the nightclub where Reina is among the performers. 
The drag queens danced solo on the arena red carpet. One, Shaniqua, seemed to lose her drawers, but, no, it was the slip, thank goodness. Without breaking stride she continued on with her performance, with much applause and cheers from the fans. 
Arts & Crafts, Toy scramble, Grocery scramble and many more events brought people out to have fun and get caught up with friends and neighbours.
There were numerous volunteers without which the event would not have been possible. The list is long and isn’t published here. Look for this on Peguis Rec Facebook page in the next few days.  

 

Rap artist resonates with Peguis youth

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Published: 10 March 2024

By James Wastasecoot 
A thousand Peguis youth lined up for the Meet and Greet with Rap artist, Dawson Harry Pastion-Bear, who goes by the stage name NorthsideBaby, at the Peguis Multiplex on Friday night Feb. 23. Pastion-Bear hails from northern Alberta’s Dene Thá First Nation. At seven, he went on the ice with his team and rapped his staccato rhythms and infectious beat as smoke poured into the air and a laser light show flashed in the semi-lit arena. He moved among his fans who crowded the players box in a mass of excitement, adoration and pride at the stellar performance. At one point, he slipped on the ice and he was quickly mobbed with some youth falling on him. But order was quickly restored by carnival staff and the show went on. 
His performance is posted on the Peguis Rec Facebook page. On Youtube, his songs speak of his roots that seem typical of Indigenous youth growing up in the city in Canada. It’s a gritty sound that paints a graphic portrait of young love, chaos and resolve to be true to oneself in the modern age. NorthSideBaby is on a tour of reserves and cities across Canada with a couple of stops in Winnipeg. 
“We were fortunate to get him. He was the carnival highlight,” said Rec Director, Jonathan Flett.

Selkirk Meeting answered longstanding questions about the BFI debt, Assiniboia Downs

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Published: 10 March 2024

By James Wastasecoot 
Selkirk band members were briefed on the latest developments impacting the community of Peguis from the First Nation Council on Feb. 15, 2024 at the Selkirk Legion Hall. Two main items were on the agenda: the 2022-2023 audit and the new legal team led by John Galus of Cascadia Law in BC. It was the financial issues which took centre stage. Mike Angers from Baker Tilley led off with the 2022-2023 audit in which he advised that the audit is qualified for four reasons, among them that they were unable to confirm that the debt owed to Bridging Finance Inc (in which Peguis is being sued by the court-appointed receiver, PriceWaterhouseCooper (PWC) for $170 million) has been negotiated down to $25 million as claimed by former chief Glenn Hudson. Many band members were under the impression, mistakenly, that simply because this fact appears in the audit, the auditors have confirmed it. 
Angers said: “Once again, we didn’t put the number to 25 million, the First Nation changes the number to 25 million, they wrote it down to 25 million, they gave us the financial statements to audit.”

He added that “qualified” means: “that particular item, we couldn’t come to a conclusion on whether that number was correct or not.”
Chief and council are considering a forensic audit of Peguis Finances, according to Chief Bird. 

 

During question period, a band member asked CFO Jordan Ulrich a question regarding Peguis investments. 
The following is an excerpt of his reply: 
“Many of our investments have not cash flowed at all, they have not provided any returns. And so, we have examples where we have had, and many of you are familiar with Assiniboia Downs, deals, and many deals done like that by prior administrations. We’re talking about $20 million buried into an entity [Assiniboia Downs] and into an organization that provides us with nothing. And one might scratch their head and wonder ‘Who on earth would make a deal like that?’ That is a question I pose to you guys all tonight, ‘Who on earth would make a deal like that?’ And so there have been many deals like that, guys, I’m talking we have 50 million net debt $50 million net debt? How will we ever pay that off as a nation? When where, as you seen from the income statement (2022-2023), we have 117 million of revenue coming in each year, we spent 122 million so right there we’re $5 million in the hole from our ISC funding and our FNIHB funding, not to mention some smaller pots of funding, like our gaming revenues and things like that. So that question that you asked was awesome. I think that sums it up right there. Our net debt grows every year, aka we fall further into the hole every year. And we fell $14 million further into the hole over the 22-23 fiscal year. What have we to show for that? Absolutely nothing? Absolutely not $1 of passive income coming in or any sort of return on investment, zero. 
So, to speak on forensic audit…  That’s obviously a Chief and Council decision. However, one thing we have we have talked about that as a leadership team with Chief and Council and executive management team. We did want to wait till this audit [FY 2022-2023] was completed because we didn’t really know what to do a forensic audit on, we did need to get this audit done. So now I’m sure Chief and Council will be considering that much closer. ...

And unfortunately, we have to live this because one of the things I want the community to understand is the opportunity cost we all face, we all understand what opportunity cost is, there’s a cost to not being able to pursue opportunities. So, we can’t even pursue Cows and Plows adequately which we were rightfully entitled to as a nation, when other nations like Pine Creek have settled for 200 million, and they’re not nearly as big as painless. We can’t pursue that when BFI is looming over our head. So this is the situation is leadership is inherited, as executive management team we’ve inherited, and you’ve all inherited this and I asked you all I’ll leave you all with one more question. Did any of you have any say in that? 
Voices in the room: “No.” 
I was there that day when that deal [Assinboia Downs] got signed.  I refused to sign I got asked to leave the room. And I think it’s important that we all understand this. I won’t say who or whom asked me to leave the room but I was not allowed in that boardroom after I refuse to sign that deal. I raised many questions like such as why are we about to sign a deal to consolidate debts at a criminal interest rate? When we have debt sources that sure they’re high? Not criminally high? Why on earth would consolidate debt at a criminal interest rate  [16% ] your highest pot of debt to begin with? It just made no sense to me.”