Not much has changed here in Morley.
The newly-elected council for Bearspaw band is up for re-election here in August and next year sees Chiniki band head off to the polls, which leaves Wesley band election in 2015. If it seems to you that there are a lot of elections, you are not alone. At a cost of roughly $300,000 each, it seems to cost a lot.
Bearspaw band has recently purchased a Subway franchise and are in the process of building a service station along with a strip mall beside the Bearspaw youth centre, which is housed beside the Bow River, which of course feeds Cochrane and Calgary. Rob Shotclose, Bearspaw chief operating officer has assured me all environmental concerns were addressed with Morley area residents.
Housing concerns continue to plague Morley. Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) told me last year that Stoney Nation is not getting any more loans or mortgages until the current lot is fulfilled or built. Chiniki band has several housing projects on hold, as does Wesley, but the hold up it seems to involve Bearspaw band housing.
According to CMHC all three bands received their allotment in 2011 to build the houses they have been approved for and Stoney Nation will not be receiving any more money until the houses that have been paid to be built are built. If this has changed and CMHC is approving housing development it comes as news to this Morley resident and to many others.
Bearspaw band is ramping the political campaigning this spring in anticipation to its election in August.
For those of you who have forgotten, Bearspaw band in 2010 cancelled its election and kicked off a legal battle that resulted in a 2011 judicial decision ordering an election for August 2011. It was never made clear why the election was cancelled but democracy ruled the day and Bearspaw band went to the polls two years ago this August only to elect a former chief Darcy Dixon, who occupied that office until his defeat in 2008 to the chief who cancelled the elections, David Bearspaw Jr.
There appears to be a recycling of chiefs here in Morley, where an average of 280 votes will get you elected chief and an average of 180 will get you in a councillors chair. Anyone can run for office, as it should be, but on this reserve, higher education doesn’t get you elected, it gets you blacklisted. Like many of you have come to learn, favoritism and nepotism run the show on the reserve.
Until the people get tired of the same old same old treatment and change it for themselves, they are going to have more of the same. That means we are all going to pay in some way in the future.
Encourage Stoney residences to make the geopolitical changes needed so they can truly be a contributing member of our society.
