FORT WILLIAM FIRST NATION – Fort William First Nation Chief Peter Collins is stepping down to take a public-sector job.
Collins, who said he’ll have more to say on his move in the not-too-distant future, will leave the chief’s position on Sept. 18.
It was one of the toughest decisions of his life, Collins said on Monday, making his pending resignation public.
But leaving politics behind – for now – was something he felt he had to do for himself and for his family, Collins said, noting he does not have a pension from his time as chief of Fort William First Nation, despite first being elected in 1998.
“One of the biggest issues for me is I don’t have a pension, so I’ve pretty much got to work until I can’t work anymore
At least two council members, who said they were blindsided by Collins’ announcement, plan to call for an emergency meeting of council to determine next steps for the community, and plan to press for a byelection to replace the outgoing chief.
Collins, who has been public about his plans not to seek re-election next year, was most recently elected chief in 2019, the four-year term schedule to end on April 16, 2023.
He was first elected chief in 1998, serving through 2007, when he was defeated. He returned to the office two years later and served until 2013, when he stepped aside for a term, defeating incumbent Georjann Morriseau in 2015.
All told, Collins has served 10 terms as chief, plus several more as a band councillor.
Looking back at his tenure at the helm of Fort William First Nation, Collins said there was plenty to be proud about.
“I accomplished a lot in my tenure as a chief,” he said. “We’ve done a lot of different things in the community. We’ve built office complexes, we have Resolute’s state-of-the art mill. We have arenas, community centres. We pushed the umbrella with INAC to make sure that we can do our own contracting in our own community so we didn’t have to go through the tender process.”
Collins said by no means was he a perfect chief, noting he’s missed a few things along the way.
“But we’ll get there. This community will get there, taking advantage of the resources around the region,” Collins said.
Still, his departure wasn’t met with complete applause.
Coun. Tannis Kastern said Collins could, at the very least, have given council members a heads up.
“Today we were given quite the surprise on the resignation of our leader, who has a 20-year or more stretch in our community of being our leader,” she said. “We have many concerns with his departure and the lack of transparency that followed up to this decision.”
Kastern, who learned of the coming resignation late last week through second-hand sources, said council should have been the first group Collins told.
Kastern said she and other councillors would have more to say about their concerns about Collins’ future plans in the coming days.
