George Morgan Elected Chief of Liard First Nation

Tuesday, 6 June 2017 11:22

Morgan wants to fix finances and move off of Third-Party Management.

Six months after an election was to be held and court action taken, the Liard First Nation has elected a new Chief and Council. Long time critic of incumbent chief Daniel Morris, George Morgan won a decisive victory in a hotly contested election Monday. Only days before Morris and two others tried stopping the election at the last minute, claiming Election Committee procedural violations. Yet voting went ahead anyways.

The original election was to take place December 16, 2016, but was not called. Court action was taken, with an election date set for April 10, 2017, but then Returning Officer Lois Moorcroft abruptly quit, on unspecified reasons. June 5^th finally saw ballots counted.

The unofficial vote totals, has Morgan at 203 votes to Morris’s 102. Morgan calls that “a clear mandate”. He says he feels “uplifted” but marches forward with trepidation, knowing he must address the financial quagmire the First Nation finds itself in, in being under Third-Party Management through the Department of Indigenous Affairs. “LFN bank accounts are seized. We haven't had an audit in three and a half years. We have no idea where we are at financially. Just the financial reporting for the past three and a half years is a significant challenge.” “In some way, we have to demonstrate we are good money managers. We have to show our funding partners that we're professional, we're prepared to be good money managers. I think we can do that. I think we're going to work collaboratively with the Third-Party Managers. I don't think its their desire to be here indefinitely. I thinks its fine, I think we're going to find a way through it.”

Former Chief Liard McMillan a supporter of Morgan is pleased with the election results. “I believe that George Morgan is an honest person and he cares about this community. It's good to see we have somebody in office again who cares and is willing to work with the people and not against them.” McMillan says the actions of the Morris administration has severely damaged the reputation of the Liard First Nation and its people. “I think it's done a lot to damage our community and our people. I think its also damaged the reputation of Liard First Nation and Kaska people in the eyes of Yukon quite severely. That was the unfortunate fallout. It was really a game of smoke and mirrors played by Daniel Morris and his Council.”

The election itself could be challenged by Morris, yet Morgan says the vote differential will make it more difficult to overturn the results.

(Dan Jones, with files from Chuck Hendrie. June 6, 2017)