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THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
Salt River First Nation's Chief David Poitras has resigned, sort of.

David Poitras: Tapping emergency fund necessary to pay bills.

Poitras said he verbally submitted his resignation after a discussion about his usage of band finances grew heated at a meeting with council on Jan. 26.

Poitras said the financial problems go back to 2008 and the band has been on a major spending spree and not following budgets on a number of projects, including building houses, constructing a gas bar and clearing brush for a power line, but he started to realize how bad things really were in October.

"The costs were just out of this world," he said.

Poitras, who has been chief since December 2011, said the band's finances got "pretty ugly."

In January, he said it was determined the band probably would not be able to cover operating costs until the new fiscal year, which begins on April 1, and he moved $455,000 out of a so-called rainy day account to make payrolls.

"As chief, I had the authority to transfer that to our general account, which I did," he said.

That action appears to have prompted the negative reaction from most of council on Jan. 26.

"The council found out about this and got really upset with me," Poitras said. "What they've been saying is that I've been withholding information. I had no information to give them. I was just finding out myself."

Poitras said the transfer of money was the first time he did something without consulting with council.

Some councillors were yelling and screaming at him at the Jan. 26 meeting, and he felt he was being bullied, he said.

"If there's a problem, what do we do?" he added. "We should sit down and discuss it. If they're not happy with something I did or did not do, then we should have been discussing it, not screaming."

As of Jan. 29, Poitras had not submitted a written letter of resignation, and he said he has no plans to do so.

When asked if that means he is still chief, he responded, "I don't know. All I'm saying is I'm not writing a letter of resignation."

Poitras said a precedent was set when previous chiefs resigned and council would not accept a verbal resignation, but required it in writing.

In addition, he noted council sent a hand-delivered letter to him on Jan. 28 asking that he submit a letter of resignation.

Poitras said it might take a lawyer to figure out the situation.

The former (or current) chief said the Jan. 26 confrontation with council centred

on the band's finances.

"The shit hit the fan on Saturday (Jan. 26), and, of course, in typical Salt River fashion they're going to look for a scapegoat, who just happened to be the chief," he said. "I'm not taking responsibility for all of it."

While he is not working as the chief, he said, "I'm not resigning as chief until I make damn sure my name is cleared."

Poitras said he is not suggesting that anyone stole money from Salt River First Nation.

"The financial accountability was so poor that it gave us a totally false picture of what we thought we had," he said, while suggesting the poorly-spent money could total into the millions of dollars.

Council has appointed Coun. Connie Benwell as interim chief.

"Chief David Poitras threw in the towel and walked away from us at a council meeting on Saturday evening, Jan. 26, after a heated discussion," Benwell stated in a handwritten statement to News/North. "He wasn't communicating with the council on some very important decisions which should have come to council and gone through proper channels."

The statement added, "When the council began to inquire as to why we were kept in the dark on such important matters, he got very defensive and upset, then he quit on us. Council accepted his verbal resignation and they appointed myself as interim chief until we hold a byelection in early April."

Poitras said he is now getting documents together on the financial issues to try to figure out where the money went from 2008 onward and, if the band could afford it, he believes a forensic audit may be required.

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