Welcome. Today is Wednesday, August 7. The purpose of this video is to provide an update to membership. There were four items that I will be discussing, and I will try to be brief and to the point on each of these items.
• The first item is our insurance.
• Second item is the BFI update.
• The third is the election appeal, and the
• fourth is our update on our project management that we've been working on.
1. Insurance
There are several reasons I wanted to update membership regarding our asset insurance. The first is that our assets were undervalued. Hasn't been updated since 2017 so we looked at that our CEO re evaluated everything for Chief and Council and entered into discussions with Aon Insurance. So, effective on July 10, 2024 Aon became our exclusive insurance brokers. Then the second reason why I wanted to update community with the BFI or with the asset insurance, rather, is that our own insurance up to 2017 the first payee on our insurance for our school or arena etcetera, was Bridging Finance, BFI. So Should anything have happened in years previous then the first payee on insurance would have been BFI. They would collect the insurance in the event of a fire or anything of that nature. So I think this is an indication that we are working to ensure our assets are properly protected, that they're properly insured, and that we have them insured in the name of Peguis. So Pegus is now the first payee on all our assets, and that's the way should have been from the beginning.
2. BFI debt
The second update is related to BFI, as you may or may not know, Price Waterhouse Coopers is the court appointed receiver and manager of Bridging Finance, and they commenced action seeking judgment against our nation for repayment of debt or damages for breach of contract. And as you recall, the BFI effective April of last year was our principal was 100 million interest of approximately 72 million. So 172 million is what we were being taken to court for. So, the position of Chief and Council is that we weren't going to just simply sit back and wait to see what happened. Was to see what the outcome would be for the claim against our nation, but that we would take a more aggressive approach to protect the interests of our nation. So on July 22 2024 we filed a third party claim against David and Natalie Sharp, Jenny Virginia Coco, Rock-Anthony Coco and John Doe, and the third party claim is public information. We had it posted on our website. I believe it may still be up. And our third party claim is based on conspiracy to injure our nation, kickbacks, presenting MJardine as a legitimate business opportunity. Peguis First Nation suffered damages. There's unjust enrichment and breach of fiduciary duty. And I have third party claim here with me, and I'd like to share a bit of the details, so looking at excerpts from the third party claim. So in terms of the conspiracy, the third parties and each of them, the third parties being the Sharpes, Cocos and John Doe, the third parties, and each of them agreed and combined to act lawfully and unlawfully, with the predominant purpose of injuring Peguis First Nation. The third parties have caused Peguis First Nation to suffer losses and are liable in the tort of conspiracy. The particulars of the conspiracy include an agreement between the third parties to coerce Peguis First Nation, to agree to pay commercially unreasonable broker fees for arranging the credit facilities from which kickbacks and other improper financial benefits would be paid to the third parties. Also an agreement between the third parties to a coerce Peguis First Nation to incur additional debt from Bridging Finance. BFI to invest in MJardin group incorporated an entity on the verge of default. Part of the conspiracy also involves, as I mentioned, kickbacks, and MJardim as a legitimate business opportunity. So in terms of kickbacks, the broker fees from which the third parties ultimately receive kickbacks, and the kickback serve no legitimate purpose, business purpose, and were instead for the sole and exclusive benefit of the third parties, in terms of MJardin, the third parties, or any of them, presented to MJardin to Peguis First Nation as a legitimate Business Opportunity, which could generate revenue for the community.
The damages to Peguis First Nation.
The third parties have caused Peguis First Nation to suffer damages, unjust enrichment. The third parties have been enriched by the kickbacks, breach of fiduciary duty. Peguis First Nation says that the third parties, or any of them, owed Peguis First Nation a fiduciary duty that required the third parties to, among other things, avoid conflicts of interest and self dealing and to act with honesty, integrity and in good faith in the dealing with Peguis First Nation, the third parties or any of them breached said fiduciary duties when the third parties or any of them encouraged, facilitated or coerced Peguis First Nation to pay the kickbacks and to invest in MJardin, as alleged here in
So that's the update for Bridging Finance. That's where things are at right now. Our our legal team continues to strategize. We have weekly meetings and on several occasions, our legal team, Castles Brock has reached out to the former chief to assist our nation in in this defense, our defense against a claim. And this has been been attempted on several different occasions. We have not yet received a response to date.
3. Election Appeal
The third item is the election appeal. As as you may have heard, there was an election appeal heard in federal court on July the 11th, 2024 and there was accusations that there was violence and intimidation from a group called 269, so basically, the former chief is alleging that the there was violence and intimidation, and as a result, the results of the election were not accurate and the election itself was unfair. So we don't know the outcome of the hearing yet. The turnaround time for such hearings is four to six weeks, but given it is the summer, people are away on holidays, it may take a bit longer than that, but we'll keep membership informed as time goes on.
4. Project Managers
The fourth item is good news, I'm sure, news that many of you have been waiting for, and has to do with our project managers. So on July 19 of 2024 we signed IMG as our project managers. We've been in discussion for quite a length of time with Indigenous Services Canada and our project managers are to oversee the rebuilding of our community, the rebuilding and repairs of our homes, the ditches, The culverts, etc. So initially, ISC required a six month promise for the flow of funding, a six month period at which time the work conducted by IMG would be reassessed, as well as the flow of funding. Chief and Council said, No, we weren't. We weren't open to this idea, simply because that wasn't part of our discussion. We had discussed a three year term, and there was disagreement. So in the end, we explained, or shared with indigenous Services Canada that this was no longer just about building houses. And repairing houses, doing work to our ditches and culverts, but that this was really a human rights issue, our rights as as human beings were being violated, and that we were prepared to go to any extent we had to to ensure that our case was heard and that the rebuilding started within our community. So we, got a meeting with the federal government officials, and this meeting took place in Montreal, Quebec on July the 10th, 2024 from that meeting is agreed with assurances. that we would receive the funding, as we had discussed, and we asked for it in writing. So we got it in writing, and that led to the signing on of IMG. And it's worth noting that the funding for all the work to be completed through our project managers, their fees will be covered directly from indigenous Services Canada. It would not come from the budget of our nation, so it's in no way going to affect our funding.
So, submission 3 was made on August 2, 2024 and it's submission 3, because there's a number of submissions that we have to go, that we have to go through in order to have all the work carried out. So submission 3, we submitted first. IMG, submitted first. There's the reason for that is we wanted to establish a process that would allow us to be responsive, build our homes, repair our homes, do the work to the infrastructure that was required more efficiently, effectively. So submission 3 involves a demolition of seven houses, the rebuilding of seven houses, and to address the personal loss claims. This is going to be a lengthy process, but to all those that have been affected by by last year the flood that those claims will be redirected back to the homeowners. On August 9,2024 another submission was made. Submission 1. So it's a building of 50 plus houses, and the important part to the rebuilding of our nation is that it's Peguis first. We will use our own people, our contractors, our carpenters, plumbers, electricians, etc. They will be the first to be hired, and the homeowners, again will get the it'll be their choice as to whether they want an RTM are ready to move, or else a stick bill or a modular home. Yeah, the band shop yard across from the band office here will be the site where our homes will some of our homes will be built while other work is being done in terms of the infrastructure required once the home is moved. So, our entire - well - one of our goals for setting up things like this, one of the things we want to do is we want to generate our own revenue for the community. An idea that has come to mind from Council is that we, we will purchase our own lumber. So there's going to be a lot of houses that are being built, and it only makes sense that we, we purchase our own number. So that's really good news for our community, that the rebuilding of our homes and repairs to our homes, rebuilding of our nation will be starting very quickly. And you may notice already, across at the band shop area, there's they're leveling the ground ready to prepare the site for the building of the houses.
Conclusion
So that's the update effective this date. As more information becomes available, we will share it with community.
Just on a final note, I received a number of calls regarding the Thousand Plows, and the tree annuity payments we have not initiated anything in that regard yet, but once we do, membership will be informed every step of the way.
So migwetch, thank you for your time.