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COVID-19 | Chief and Council Update | March 30, 2020

Published: March 30 2020 14:44

Chief and Council Update

March 30, 2020

Chief and Council are continuously monitoring the rapidly evolving Pandemic Covid-19. This morning Council met via conference call to review and address many issues facing Acadia First Nation.

As previously mentioned the Federal Government announced $305 million for a Indigenous Community support Fund across Canada. We have now received more details regarding this program from Indigenous Services Canada. The fund will be broken down as follows:

$215 million for First Nations: allocated to each First Nation based on population, remoteness and community well-being;

• $45 million for Inuit, which will flow to each of the four land claims organizations through an allocation determined by the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and regional Inuit land claims organizations;
• $30 million for Métis Nation communities, which will flow through each of the Governing Members;
• $15 million for regional and urban Indigenous organizations supporting their members living away from their communities, and to regional organizations such as Friendship Centres and the Métis Settlements General Council of Alberta.

Acadia First Nation was advised on Saturday that we will be receiving sometime in April
$170,391.79 for fiscal year 2020-2021. These funds can be used for measures including, but not limited to: support for Elders,food Insecurity,educational and other support for children, financial assistance for those without work, mental health assistance and emergency response services.

To date Acadia First Nation has assisted over 200 band members. We have already disbursed $200 each to all Elders both on and off reserve residing in Nova Scotia, all AFN band members in receipt of a disability pension who reside in NS, all social assistant recipients on reserve and our sponsored students who maintain their own rental units.

With the announcement of this Indigenous Community Support Fund the Chief and Council have now approved $200 for all other AFN band members over the age of 18 residing in Nova Scotia. If you received the profit sharing in November 2019 this assistance will automatically be mailed out to you. You will not need to apply. Those band members who have recently become registered or since turned 18 must contact us. Please contact a Councillor or call the Yarmouth Band office at 902-742-0257 to reach our administrative assistant. If your mailing address has changed since November please contact us to update. Payments will be mailed out within the next couple of weeks. We thank you for your patience during this time.

We have also been working hard to stock up our community centres with supplies and frozen meals. These will be kept for emergency situations over the coming weeks.

We face many challenges in the days and weeks ahead. We thank all our staff both at our store fronts and those working from home for their continuous commitment. Please continue to monitor our Website and FB groups for the latest information regarding Covid-19. Stay home as much as possible and stay safe. Take care of one another.

 

Chief and Council
Acadia First Nation