APTN National News
Questions are beginning to mount over an audit of Peguis First Nation emergency spending, released by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
The audit looks at how money for flood relief was spent between 2009 and 2011. It contains details of payments in excess of $200,000 made directly to chief and council, and large discrepancies on the number of houses that were sandbagged.
Peguis chief Glenn Hudson responded by referring to the document as a draft audit, and labelled it as another attempt by critics to undermine his leadership.
The CTF says that band members came forward with the document. Aboriginal Affairs has yet to comment.
APTN National News reporter Tiar Wilson has the details.
That is true, only 50 houses were sandbagged, much of them were not in flood zones. They employ over 200 people to sandbag, clean, supervise and inspect flood waters. I really hate to say it but much of the homes owners will delibertly decline or do things to make thier homes flood so they can claim flood damage checks. As of this year, there were a handful of families that are still ‘evacuated’ from thier homes. They have been living in hotels and have had apartments rented for them. If any Peguis member needed funds for anything, they can easily go to the Chief and request it. He will give them money ranging from $100-$2000, either out of his pocket of from his bank account. Much of the time, he tells them to go over to the Peguis Gaming Commission and pick up money from there. Chief & Council attended numerous meetings in regards to the flood, do you honestly think that they paid for it out of thier own pockets? As for the private engineering firm, thier name is Ashkym Engineering, a company that Glen had worked for and it is always said that he co-owns this company using Peguis dollars. An engineer is capable of diverting paper documents to say he was not given this or that.
I say where there is smoke, there is fire & Glen Hudson needs to start being held accountable for all the wrongdoing in his community.