KAHBAMIUE/COLVILLE LAKE - Colville Lake is one step closer to self-government now that the community has voted to transfer all municipal responsibilities to the band council.

On Jan. 26, voters unanimously support dissolving the Colville Lake Settlement Corporation and handing community operations to the band chief and council.

Of the 69 registered voters in Colville Lake, which has a population of about 150, 42 voted in favour while 10 didn't vote. Seventeen band members were out of town at the time.

The Behdzi Ahda First Nation Band is set to take over municipal operations April 1, pending approval from the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, band manager Joseph Kochon said.

"We're working with MACA in Yellowknife to develop a corporation that will hold assets on behalf of the community," he said. "This is just an interim step. We're working toward self-government," he added. "This is the direction that the community wanted to take."

The band will enter into contracts with the GNWT to take over responsibility of municipal services, including water and sewer, and ownership of equipment such as fire trucks, similar to designated authority operations in Lutsel K'e and Wrigley.

Colville Lake was the last settlement in the territory. Enterprise and Fort Resolution both recently transitioned from settlements to hamlets.

David Kravitz, manager of community governance with MACA, said settlement corporations were put in place to give communities experience running their own affairs.

"The understanding was always that once a community was sufficiently developed that they would naturally move to municipal status, because settlements are limited in their abilities," said Kravitz. This is particularly true when it comes to making community laws and owning real property. So we have been encouraging settlements to make the move to municipal status," he said.

"In Colville Lake's situation, the residents didn't want to become a municipal government and now they've asked us to dissolve the settlement corporation," Kravitz said, adding he expects the minister will approve the decision before the end of the band's fiscal year next month.

Resident Alvin Orlias, a director with the land corporation and a former band councillor, said he supports the change because it means the band will be able to lead the community more effectively.

"So far they haven't led us wrong," he said. "This is a good step in going that way. You're already forming a government within the community to run the municipal services," he added, "so when it comes time to step into self-government, you already have the experience and the infrastructure in place."

In December, residents voted down a proposal to switch to charter community status. Orlias said he didn't support that idea because "the chief and council would lose most of their power to the territorial government, which would leave the territorial government pretty much in control of whatever goes on here which is not what we wanted."