Andrew Livingstone
Northern News Services
Published Friday, August 22, 2008

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Theresa Harmon wants to get some answers about her missing Impact Benefit Agreement payments.

Adopted at the age of one when her mother fell ill with tuberculosis, Harmon spent many years floating from one foster home to another.

She was adopted by a family in St. Thomas, Ont., and was told her parents had died. Years later, upon looking over records from the Ontario Children's Aid Society, she found that her birth name was Crookedhand.

It was during a reunion with members of her family here in Yellowknife that she became aware of the Impact Benefit Agreement payments.

"My cousin Louise gave the number to the band office and said I needed to ask them about the IBA pay-outs and have them sent to me," Harmon said.

In 2000, money was paid out to all members of the Yellowknives Dene First Nations band. The money came from an Impact Benefit Agreement signed with Diavik Diamond Mines.

"What I found out was that all the band members received an equal amount of money in 2000," Harmon said. "So they got their money, whereas I didn't."

In 2000, each band member, including children, received a payment of $2,000. In 2001 members received $1,000 and every subsequent year $500 was paid to each band member, again, including children. Harmon has three children and would be entitled, over the last eight years, to $26,000.

"When I found my family, I went to the band," Harmon said. "They said they had a certain amount set aside for me, but didn't know who Theresa Baxter was."

Baxter is Harmon's adopted family name.

Harmon did receive part of her payments, but nowhere near what is owed to her. She received six cheques from the band - one for $2,000, four for $500 and one for $300, totalling $4,300, well below the expected amount. When she came to Yellowknife this past June, she was unable to get any clarification from band leaders about the missing payments.

"I tried to have Chief (Ed) Sangris talk to me and he wasn't available, Joe Carter has been unresponsive. It seems no one at the band office wants to talk to me."

Sangris was phoned numerous times by Yellowknifer but was unavailable to answer questions concerning the payments.

With only a limited amount of time to get answers before she returned to her home in California, Harmon could not get her questions answered, especially when asking to see reports.

"I asked to see the financial reports, which I'm entitled to, and they said I could see it any time," she said. "When I went to look at it they said they didn't have time.

"When it comes to finances they don't want to deal with it."

Harmon plans to contact the regional office for Indian and Northern Affairs.

"If no one is willing to help me out from the band, then I'm going to file a formal complaint against them," she said. "That's my only option. At least that way something will be done. I don't want to go that route if I can help it, but if I have to I will."