Speech from Chief Tammy Cook-Searson, Lac La Ronge Indian Band
Chief Tammy Cook-SearsonA special thank you to the Elders who are with us today. We recognize your contribution to our band and we want you to know that we are working to build on your past successes.
I would also like to recognize and welcome our many honoured guests including;
- La Ronge Band councilors, Pam Mirasty, Doris Morin and Hillary Cook, and councilor from Grandmothers Bay; Leon Charles.
- I am also pleased to welcome two members of the Golden Band board of directors. They are Mr. Ron Netolitzky and Mr. John Tosney, and their President, Mr. Rodney Orr.
- I am also pleased to welcome our partner Mr. Ed Yurkowski from Procon Mining & Tunneling.
- Welcome also members of the investment community and members of the media.
Welcome to our traditional territory. It is our custom to welcome visitors to our traditional territory but today the welcoming has additional meaning. Over the years there have been many resource developments on our traditional lands…. too often we have not been a significant part of these developments. Land has been bought and sold, mines have opened and closed and trees have been harvested, often without any benefits going to our people… And sometimes the environment has suffered because of these developments. We have always believed that resource developments could be done in an environmentally responsible manner. We continue to believe that our people should benefit from these resource developments.
It was because of these beliefs that we started Kitsaki 25 years ago. Kitsaki and the group of businesses that we started, and have invested in, have been growing and gaining strength and today we are in a much better position to gain from economic development activities in our area.
One of the key commitments, approved by our board, that Kitsaki must live by is as follows:
“We shall develop the resources of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band’s Traditional Lands according to the principles of Sustainability, Environmental Protection, Multiple Use of Resources, Preservation of Traditional Activities and Public Participation and Consultation.”
Today is a very important day in our First Nations future. Today we are able to be in on the ground floor with a gold development opportunity in our own backyard. While our traditional territories encompass a large part of the province, the gold belt is at the center. Our band members have hunted, fished and trapped that area for centuries, as they do today. We believe that the developments announced today will compliment these traditional activities.
Rather than always being on the outside looking in …we are involved in serving the needs of Golden Band Resources from the first stages of development. To date, we have enjoyed great cooperation from Golden Band Resources. Most of the environmental work today has been performed by Canada North Environmental Services that we own. And even today we have La Ronge Band members at the site completing initial work before the first shovel goes into the ground.
Our long time partner, Procon Mining and Tunnelling and our Kitsaki staff have been in serious discussions with Golden Band for months to ensure that this development will proceed in a way that benefits the shareholders of Golden Band and benefits our band members and others in our community. We are committed to working with Golden Band to ensure that we both benefit from a safe, environmentally responsible, and profitable workplace. We want both a productive business relationship and a productive community relationship with Golden Band. We will work with Golden Band and the province at their community consultation meetings and in the negotiation of a participation agreement that will show First Nations and businesses across the country that resource developments can proceed on traditional lands in a timely, cooperative and profitable manner.
We believe the cooperation between Golden Band and the La Ronge Band is unprecedented. Instead of being on the outside looking in.… our First Nation is on the inside working side by side with Procon and Golden Band. We want to make sure that some of the Gold from the La Ronge Gold Belt goes to the shareholders of Golden Band and that some of that gold goes to our band too.
Thank you for coming to today’s announcement and have a safe trip home.
