Latest news with #DakotaNations
CBC
24-03-2025
- Health
- CBC
Southern Chiefs' Organization invests $1.5M in holistic wellness initiative
Social Sharing The Southern Chiefs' Organization has launched a holistic health-care initiative that it says will centre on the teachings of the Anishinaabe and Dakota Nations of southern Manitoba. The Healthy Living campaign will contribute to the health of nearly three dozen nations the organization represents, by promoting the physical wellness of youth through basketball, healthy eating through garden competitions, language classes and a First Nation youth drum group, according to a Monday news release from the SCO. "The 11-year life-expectancy gap is a trend that's not reversing, it's actually getting worse … we really need to put a lot of focus into our health care," Daniels told reporters later at a news conference on Monday. "We want to highlight the challenges that we're seeing with diabetes. We want to get our young people moving. We want to get that relationship with our food made a priority — knowledge, our culture, our languages." About two-thirds of the $1.5 million in funding will back young basketball players participating in the revival of the Manitoba Indigenous Summer Games in Sagkeeng from August 17-23. E.J. Fontaine, chief of Sagkeeng First Nation, told reporters it will be the first time the Games will be held following a 10-year hiatus, and 4,000 athletes, spectators, parents and officials are expected to attend. "We put together a bid and we proposed to the Manitoba Aboriginal Sports and Recreation Centre to revive the Games, and we were successful in securing the bid along with Norway House," Fontaine said. "It's very important that we're having the Games revived in our communities because we have to give our kids an alternative path to living." Fontaine says the Games are the physical health part of the four-directions teachings given to him as a young man by an elder: healthy body, healthy soul, healthy mind and healthy spirit. "I followed that, and when I was 22 years old, I was able to change my life around from being addicted to drugs and alcohol. And I'm really happy that I followed the advice of the elder," Fontaine said. "It's only through sports and recreation that we're going to steer our kids, our youth, in the right path, away from some of the drug problems we have in our community." Another $100,000 of funding will go to support summer basketball camps for youth in the 32 Anishinaabe and Dakota Nations that SCO represents. Themes of wellness The health campaign focuses on seven themes of wellness as medicine: food, water, movement, community, land, knowledge and culture. As part of the cultural prong of health, a youth drum group will receive $100,000 to aid in the dissemination of songs and dances to young people, with $300,000 put toward language classes in several SCO communities. Food and the relationship to food will be encouraged through a garden competitions, Daniels says, as a way to spotlight the work already being done in First Nations communities. "We've really wanted to promote healthy eating and the relationship with our food … we want to really push for gardening within the schools … change our eating behaviours and really highlight that among our young people," Daniels said. Willie Moore, the Assembly of First Nations regional chief representing Manitoba, says children in the province have the highest rate of Type 2 diabetes in the world, with 85 per cent being Indigenous. Moore says it's been 20 years since the Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative, a Health Canada program, last saw a funding increase.
CBC
19-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
Southern Chiefs' Organization to adjust cost, scope of downtown Winnipeg Bay redevelopment
Social Sharing The Southern Chiefs' Organization is slated to adjust the cost and scope of its planned redevelopment of the former Bay building in downtown Winnipeg in what will be the first update about the project since the departure of senior officials in the organization. The SCO has called a news conference for Wednesday morning to brief reporters about its ongoing conversion of the former depatment store into a mixed-use project called Wehwehneh Bahgahkinagohn. The project was originally slated to cost $130 milllion in 2022, when the Hudson's Bay Company announced the transfer of the six-storey, 655,000-square-foot building at the corner of Portage Avenue and Memorial Boulevard to the SCO, which represents 34 Anishinaabe and Dakota Nations in southern Manitoba. That projected cost was raised to $200 million in 2023. The federal government has pledged $96 million in cash and loans to help pay for the project. The province has promised $35 million, while the City of Winnipeg has offered $10 million worth of tax breaks over the next 25 years. SCO has not issued any updates about Wehwehneh since May 2024, when the federal Liberal government increased its funding commitment to the project. Since then, the SCO has weathered turmoil at the executive level. In December, Grand Chief Jerry Daniels took a one-month leave from his position after he was hospitalized as a result of an early-morning altercation in Ottawa. After Daniels returned to work, the SCO placed chief executive officer Joy Cramer and chief operating officer Jennifer Rattray on leave and named Ryan Bear as CEO, according to a memo distributed to all SCO staff on Jan. 24. Representatives with the city, province, federal government and True North Real Estate Development — which plans to build a residential tower above the west pad of Portage Place mall in conjunction with the SCO — said they remained committed to Wehwehneh. Redevelopment cost rises A source familiar with the project said Tuesday the cost of the redevelopment has risen and so has the scope. The last publicly stated iteration of the project called for an atrium at the centre of the building, a museum and gallery, a rooftop garden, a monument to residential and day-school survivors, two restaurants, a child-care centre, a health and healing centre, a governance facility for southern Manitoba First Nations and at least 350 residential units, including assisted living units for First Nations elders. The source familiar with the project said there are now 373 housing units planned for the project but did not say what elements have been removed from the plans. Work on the project has proceeded from the removal of materials inside the building to the erection of a crane now visible at the construction site. The source familiar with the project said approximately three quarters of the Wehwehneh construction workforce — 1,042 of 1,360 workers — are Indigenous.
