FORT WILLIAM FIRST NATION — The newly minted chief executive officer of Fort William First Nation is eager to hit the ground running.
Christine MacKay says every day has been a learning experience since taking over the role from Michael Pelletier on Oct. 19.
“Right now, I’m in planning phase [of the job]”, MacKay said during an interview this week.
“I'm just trying to get a good sense of where each area of the [Fort William First Nation] community is at, and then [look at ways to build] a plan to meet the [unique] needs moving forward and really help bring the team together. [I am also] looking at [putting together a strategic plan] to [help the band and council] address what the community needs are to succeed and [serve the people.”
MacKay came to Fort William First Nation from the Ontario Native Women’s Association, where she served as the community development manager since 2015.
Fort William First Nation Chief Michele Solomon noted that MacKay’s extensive experience in community and proposal development as well as policy writing made her an ideal fit for the position.
“She was interviewed by a panel of the council of the Fort William First Nation,” Solomon said. “She had a lot of the skills that [the organization was] looking to harness and do some good work here in the administration. We are in a four-year term and there are a lot of [initiatives and projects that] we are working to finalize and move forward. I think that Christine will contribute to those in a good and meaningful way.”
While the chief said there are things behind the scenes that the community is working on but can’t disclose, one of the long-term goals is to get a new long-term care facility constructed.
A proposed 96-bed long-term care facility is shovel-ready, but received a no response from Ottawa in June 2022 when an application was filed previously for $25 million under the Infrastructure Canada Green and Inclusive Community Buildings Fund.
“We know that there's a high need for long term care beds, and particularly having a facility that is Indigenous owned and operated, and will have the Indigenous nature embedded in it,” Soloman said. “This is something that we've been working on for a long time, and we do hope that it will receive funding going forward, but that is just really up in the air right now. [That said] we do appreciate all the support that we are receiving out there, including from (Thunder Bay–Rainy River) MP Marcus Powlowski.”
The estimated cost of the project is $40 million, and already has the approval of Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, which would support operating costs with a per diem contribution.
