Submitted by Senaqwila Wyss - Running for Council

1. What qualifies you to be on Chief and Council? through my education in communications studies, st SFU I have studied policy making, political economy of communications, aboriginal justice and First Nations studies as some of my main focuses. I have familiarity with creating an AGM with the Wild Bird trust at Maplewood Flats on Dollarton Hwy (beside Tsleil Waututh/Burrard). I have attended Union of BC Indian Chiefs AGA (Annual General Assembly) this year with my course at sfu on Criminology and Aboriginal Justice. I am strong with my numbers and have confidence with finances, budgets and long term planning. 2. What does it mean to be on Chief and Council and represent the community? as an off reserve member, I do not feel represented by the chief and council and wish to see more diversity in representation. There is a need for diversifying representation of women, of off reserve members, and of the youth. I want to be a vital role in the youth speaking up to fight for our future generations rights to stop policy making that allows LNG, Kinder Morgan and other resource extraction that has such negative impacts and the money that comes with it is one of the negative aspects as well. It should not be seen as a lifelong career to serve term after term, I would not wish to make this my lifetime achievement in serving, but rather to be able to impact policy making, members voices, and be able to have a youth who can approach me throughout the term and have our councillors pass on knowledge and skills to support leadership from our next generations. 3. What are your feelings with regards to the Governance Manual? What were its good points and bad points? Please provide examples. I do not agree that the governance manual was allowed to be passed and upheld without community engagement, consultation, there is no open door and gateway that is giving the people the rights to veto or to stop these policies and documents from becoming law. I see the conflict of interest of a council writing their own job description and not having accountability and not having community interest at heart. 4. What are your thoughts on the draft Election Law? Good or bad points that you noticed? Please provide examples. The fact that there are excuses made as to why they could not enact it BEFORE the election this year feels like a cop out and I am one of many who are disappointed there was not a timely manner in making the changes on election laws, reforms, and even a referendum to consult the nation. There are immediate reforms that should have been taken into action before this election. With 53% of our nation off reserve, ballot casting in various forms should have been passed for fair representation of voters. Those included mail in ballots or on-line voting. Other excellent points could be the allowance of limiting the councillors time served, 5. Do you know of any issues that currently affect Squamish Nation? This can be internal or external issues. I feel there is a gap in the current system of openly sharing information between departments, council, and membership. Some councillors have spoken about on the Squamish Nation Member Forum the are left out of decision making, I believe with many departments that some information is not known between them, and that membership seeks open door policy and transparency to feel empowered for educated about the governance. Members who I have visited off reserve have mentions this also as a concern, waiting for too long for fixes from asking the nation to review issues such as a heater in the home not working, or similar in home problems. There are so many issues to be heard, with so many parts of reserves, off reserves, as well as pertaining to land deals and losses of lands, there is much diligent work to be done. 6. Do you believe enough is being done for our elders and youth? When I talk to my grandma about housing issues and that she attended some of the meeting that elders were invited to in regards to housing strategies. It seems some engaging by council is to our respected elders, I think more can be done to engage the eager to learn younger generations. If we have support for free meeting spaces within the community to have youth or elder committees to discuss needs of these parts of the communities. They could have representatives come to council and share the real stories of what our elders and youth face, relay to council the ideas and the solutions of concerns. Council must bring forth more transparency to allowing attendees into meetings. 7. How could you help the community trust Chief and Council again? there needs to be review or to remove the policies on such strict confidentiality from council. More of an open door policy or a reform of the way to allow members to attend council meetings, view minutes and binders, and AGA or AGM meetings to be returned. Several member-run committees would be a great opportunity for several parts of varying communities to come together to share ideas, bring them to council and be heard by the community. Some examples may include a Youth Committee to have a meeting scheduled to regularly meet with council to bring forward needs, concerns, and motions that youth feel are not being addressed by council. Council could provide subsidy for meetings in a community hall (CJMC, Totem Hall, Elders Center or Eslahan) 8. What is your community involvement (pertaining ONLY to Squamish Nation community)? in the last 8 years I have been trying to engage youth and members of the community to join our community garden in xwemtchsn /cap. We’ve had summer students from our nation in the past which was great. We also have now mostly younger children who come and learn about our indigenous plants, bee keeping, berries and food crops, and composting. Enrolled in Food Safe at Eslahan and passed with 96% in 2016, also summer student program through eslahan, trained as a Receptionist at CJMC in 2009. I was in the siyamin stamsh canoe family when they started in 2009 and 2010 for tribal journeys. Singing and canoe practice and community events. I attend Skakel baby program and used to do prenatal before baby was born, at Soh-Sah-Latch. Though I live off reserve I still need to be apart of the community for my own well being. When I was younger I was a part of the Utsam (witness) program that would camp in Elaho Valley every weekend during the summer for year (maybe 6+) that was Skwxwu7mesh and other people from around vancouver and around the word to come together to stop Interfor from logging and taking over the Elaho. Eventually Squamish Nation bought out, but the sacred time many people spent Peacefully protesting, going to the elaho being in the river, was very important. 9. What are you hoping to accomplish (besides housing!) once elected? encourage council to support community engagement through annual General assembly, councils or meetings that would allow for representation of parts of our communities (the different reserves and for off reserve) to engage membership to have dialogue during council meetings on members concerns and needs. Broken trust in the community with the council and lack of transparency needs to have healing and real solutions. 10. Do you agree with your possible $80,000 annual salary? I feel that it is too high, I have had some speculation on the forum in regards to there being not only AANDC/INAC funds to council but also nation revenue. I firmly believe the remuneration is far TOO high and there must be immediate action taken. I believe many nation members did not know the absurd amounts of the remuneration and expenses, and without transparency there are not enough people asking for accountability from council. It is unfair to the community to not attend meetings and make your role in council be taken seriously, if one must step down from their fiduciary duties, they should resign and not continue to collect council salary.