After 15 years, the File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council (FHQTC) has a new tribal chief for the next three years. Jeremy Fourhorns is a former chief of Piapot First Nation where he served in that role for 10 years. Under his new leadership role, he will now be overlooking 11 Indigenous communities within Treaty 4 territory.
“The actual work dynamic changes a lot going from a community-based position to a tribal council,” said Fourhorns.
“It’s a little bit…further away from on-the-ground issues. It’s a lot of support and secondary service work that we provide to the nations.”
FHQTC held its annual general meeting and election on Nov. 24, 2021 at the Lebret gymnasium. Fourhorns ran against three other candidates: Wendell (Todd) Cappo, Wendell Starblanket and Daniel Walker.
Fourhorns said it was the right time for him to run for FHQTC Tribal Chief. Other community leaders inquired if he would consider running in the election and he took on that challenge.
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Fourhorns will replace long-time former chief and CEO Edmund Bellegarde who served for over 15 years. An honouring ceremony was held at the FHQTC annual general meeting and elections for Bellegarde as he wrapped up his role.
“What I’ll miss them most is the diversity of all of the issues,” he said. “There are so many priorities in First Nations country…where I’d like to bring some focus to is closing some of those economic gaps.”
Bellegarde will now focus on his role as president and CEO of FHQ E-Commerce, which was created in 2014 to pursue opportunities in internet commerce and its related financial services sector on behalf of FHQTC and its 11 member nations. Although Bellegarde was involved in the venture when it was first created, his duties as FHQTC Chief and CEO did not allow him time to focus on the FHQ E-Commerce.
“It didn’t enable me to bring our e-commerce initiative to full success,” he said.
“This is my next chapter and we feel it’s an economic game-changer for our nations and our people.”
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