did you know that electricity cannot be disconnected after October 15 of each year it is considered winter after that day. according to Alberta Legislature, electricity cannot be disconnected during the winter months. Did you know the original board members for Peigan Indian Rural Electrification Assoc. were John Yellow Horn, Samson Knowlton, Maurice Mcdougall, Charlie Crow Eagle, Pat Bad Eagle, Julius English, Joe Crow Shoe Sr, Walter Bastien, Jack Crow Shoe, Albert Yellow Horn sr. On Nov 02, 1999, the board of directors for the rural electrification assoc. passed a motion that stated administration for the rural electrification assoc. deposit account will change to rural electrification and its board of directors which were chief an council. in 2000, fortis aberta transferred 406,772 to rural elect. assoc. in following the nov bcr of 1999. Fortis was not aware of how funds were spent after this. In November, 2002 chief and council passed a bcr that stops electrical disconnections of all members of piikani nation. In dec, 2004, EPCOR sent letter to council for non payment of bills for a number of years. EPCOR asked chief an council to rescind the bcr dated nov 26, 2002. jan 15 meeting Peigan utilities corp and parties held meeting re outstanding accts and bcr that prevented EPCOR from disconnecting power. there was no contract in place with an energy provider at this time. the vice president of EPCOR wrote to norm brennard INAC. stating piikani did not have a service provider and we owed 103,845 and 142,144, INAC paid. payments were made from peigan social services in Oct, 2007. fortis bill in 2007 was 340,000 chief an council and alberta government agreed to use the weir monies 471,000 to pay the bill. they were to pay the money back to the trust. in april 2005, chief an council directed 158,173 from annual wier payment to peigan nation general account. piikani still did not have a service provider. fast forward to today. I believe the Hobbema band was the service provider, I know that is where I was making my payments thru the bank. today we have ppl here at the old moccasin factory who collect the monies. if you can recall a few months ago, I wondered why our rea bills were so high, I also remember at a band meeting last fall, when angie grier saying we werent paying our bills and thats why the nation owed so much, thinking about the remarks she made and the disrespect to the elders sitting in the crowd, I felt sorry for the elders. anyway going back to the huge bill, I thought majority of our ppl are on welfare and they pay the bills to rea and the other homeowners I believe pay their bills too. So I asked at that time where is the money going, are they not paying the electrical provider? I believe that there has to be an investigation into rea eventually to answer our questions. FYI abit of history. and something to think about.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 18:29:43 +0000