Three Manitoba First Nations were among 10 prairie Indian bands singled out for good governance practices at the [1st] Annual Big Bear Award Traditional Feast last night.
The O’Chiese First Nation from Alberta was recognized as the best governed Indian band and received the Big Bear award and the $50,000 that goes with it.
But the Rolling River First Nation placed second in the Aboriginal Governance Index, while Mosakahiken Cree Nation (Moose Lake) and Swan Lake placed eighth and ninth on the survey conducted by the Winnipeg-based Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
The index results were determined from in-person surveys of residents of 98 bands in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Thirty communities did not provide a sufficient quantity of results to be rated.
Residents were asked questions in five categories: elections — how fair and impartial are votes for leaders?; administration — how effectively is the band’s business conducted? human rights — how much regard is assigned to basic rights? transparency — how well are citizens informed about government?; economy — how well is the community providing economic development?
Winners were announced Wednesday night at the awards dinner held at the Marlborough Inn.
A complete copy of the report can be downloaded from
http://archive.fcpp.org/main/publication_detail.php?PubID=2807
