Wilma-Lee Johnston will lead Serpent River First Nation as its chief after emerging victorious in a recent byelection held to determine the new leader of the north shore community.
Johnston received 103 votes out of 353 ballots cast, putting her ahead of five other candidates — James Owl, Elaine Johnston, Angela Trudeau, Lorraine Rekmans and Janet Day — vying for the leadership role in the Dec. 9 election.
“I was very humbled — very humbled and honoured,” Johnston told SooToday during a telephone interview Tuesday.
Johnston succeeds former chief Brent Bissailion, who stepped down this past September. She had previously been appointed to the role of deputy chief in January.
One of Johnston’s main priorities going forward will be the completion of a $7.3-million housing project, funded through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, that's bringing 24 new units to the community.
The next phase of the project — which includes the construction of duplexes, miniature homes and a five-unit complex — is anticipated to begin this spring.
Johnston has been working with leadership to address homelessness, a lack of housing and overcrowding in the First Nation since being elected to sit on council in 2021. She says there are 24 families currently on the community’s waiting list for housing.
“We have a lot of homes here where two or three generations are living together, and while it’s a traditional way of living for us, not everybody wants to live with their grandmother or their auntie or uncle,” she said. “We have to be able to provide services for people who want their own space.”
Another top priority for leadership will be the facilitation of community-wide discussions around potential uses for Serpent River’s portion of the $10-billion Robinson Huron Treaty annuities settlement from Ontario and Canada over unpaid compensation to 21 First Nations for resource revenues collected by the Crown dating back to 1875.
Johnston says the upcoming community engagement sessions will deal with how the money is used in order to benefit the community.
“Chief and council has a work plan with our priorities that we base on what we hear from our community — but now, we have an opportunity to really be creative and dream very big for our community,” she said.
Prior to the announcement of the historic annuities settlement, Johnston says, Serpent River was always looking for gap funding to prevent projects from falling through the cracks.
“Now, we will be able to continue on with projects and have the money so when those gaps do occur, we’ll be in a position to continue the work,” said Johnston. “That’s really great for us, because a lot of times projects stall out because we can’t find the money.”
Talks with community members around disbursement of the annuities settlement are expected to resume in January.