News

Chief and Council Update | June 9th, 2020

Published: June 10 2020 10:55

Chief and Council Update

June 9, 2020

The Chief and Council would like to thank all our band members at this time for your patience and understanding as we have navigated through these unprecedented times. We have faced many challenges over the past couple of months but we are pleased to report that we are starting to see some return to our operations at Wasoqopa'q First Nation. The Council continues to meet weekly by teleconference. As well our EMO team and other committees also continue to hold regular virtual meetings.

As you are aware our gaming operations were shut down by the Province in Mid March. During this time Wasoqopa'q First Nation worked on establishing protocols and guidelines that would allow us to safely reopen our gaming and other operations. Wasoqopa'q First Nation was a leader within First Nations to provide an operating plan that would ensure the safety of our staff, customers and community. Wasoqopa'q First Nation shared the plan with other First Nations and submitted the plan to Atlantic Lotto Corporation. Our plan goes above and beyond the requirements established by the Provincial Government. We are pleased to report our Gaming facilities were approved to come back online June 7. We were one of the first gaming facilities in the Province to get this approval. The Gold Nugget and Your Winners World Establishments were up and running on the morning of June 8. Our other establishments will follow within the coming days.

Wasoqopa'q First Nation is now in the recovery phase of operations. We, unfortunately, had to lay off the vast majority of our employees both at our stores and in Administration. Essential workers have been working from home and only in the office when necessary. Over the coming months, we will be working to gradually bring back our staff. This will be done in phases. The Yarmouth band office is now open to a limited number of employees. Our other office locations will be opening at later dates.

Our restaurants, The Gold Bean and Winners One Stop are both now open to indoor dining and our stores have opened to allow customers inside. Our Medway store and the gas bar was able to remain fully operational during the last couple months. Our other locations remained open for gas,cigarette sales and some pantry items. Thank you to all staff at these locations for all your hard work. You truly have done your best and we appreciate you being out there on the front lines of this Pandemic.

We want to take this time to congratulate our Graduates. We are proud of your accomplishments and wish you much success in your future endeavours. While we will not be able to hold our annual grading celebrations this year we will be sending our NS students in grades P to 12 a cheque for $50. We know you all worked hard and wish you all a wonderful summer.

We look forward to providing future updates as we progress over the coming months.

Chief and Council
Wasoqopa'q First Nation