Will 2017 be the year without Pow Wow Days? With the passing of a motion by Lac La Biche County Council to cease all funding to the county’ s premier summer event, it may be a possibility.
Will 2017 be the year without Pow Wow Days? With the passing of a motion by Lac La Biche County Council to cease all funding to the county’ s premier summer event, it may be a possibility.
At a county budget meeting today, County Mayor Omer Moghrabi motioned that council not allocate any further funds to the Lac La Biche Pow Wow Society with the exception of those necessary for undertaking a formal audit of the society’ s financial statements. The society will not be able to receive funding until they make a public funding request to council which includes its audited financial statements. The motion was carried unanimously.
The decision is the result of longstanding discrepancies in last year’ s financial statement, which is lacking a paper trail for significant expenditures. Total losses for the 2016 festival have ranged from $14,000 to as much as $31,000 depending on the source.
Council’ s decision is bad news for Pow Wow, as the county provides major funding to the summer festival. But the association’ s vice-president Lavon Fleming said Moghrabi and council made the right decision.
“I think in the interest of the community that Mayor Moghrabi made a good decision,” said Fleming who was newly elected to the board at a special meeting on Feb.1. “I believe that the existing records indicate there has been mismanaged funds.”
She also believes the audit of the society’ s financials should be handled by an out of town accounting firm.
“By taking it to an external accounting firm, there is no understanding of the community or personal relationships for them,” she said. “That way there is no conflicts of interest.”
But Fleming is confidant Pow Wow Days can still happen this year but said its time frame may need to be shortened. She believes it would be particularly disheartening for children in the community if it were to be cancelled.
“We’ ll have to go back to its grass roots and we have to regain the confidence of community sponsors,” she said.
Going forward, Fleming feels that not only should the society provide the county with all required information to apply for public funding but also every member of the community and sponsors.
“We need people to know why their money was mismanaged,” she said. “It’ s everybody’ s money and we have to make it about the kids.”
When contacted on the same day the motion was passed, the association’ s president Martin Desjarlais declined to comment on council’ s decision until the county formerly contacted him. He plans to make a statement when he is better informed on the issue.
