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Peguis council salaries outed

 

Phyllis Sutherland

A former member of the Peguis First Nation School Board has gone public with the salaries of her band's chief and council.

Phyllis Sutherland says she released detailed audit statements to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation because she felt there was something wrong with the high salaries the elected officials were making while some families on the reserve 200 km north of Winnipeg are living in substandard housing conditions.

According to the audit for the year ending March 31, 2009, Chief Glenn Hudson was paid $206,381. The audit appears to have been conducted by the BDO Dunwoody accounting firm.

It says in part, "Nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that this Schedule of Salaries, Honoraria, Travel Expenses and other Remuneration is not in all material respects, in accordance with the requirements the Department of Indian Affairs Year-end Reporting Handbook dated January 2008."

But the chief didn't pull in the highest salary in 2008-2009. Councilor Glennis Sutherland was paid $310,731 that year, more than the Premier of Manitoba and the Prime Minister of Canada. Glennis Sutherland's salary breaks down to approximately $25,894.25 per month or $11,951.19 every two weeks.

Councilor Glenn Cochrane was paid $261,996; Councilor Darlene (Debra) Bird was paid $257,605; Councilor Mary M. Sutherland was paid $225,418.

Wild Rice and Mushroom Casserole

 

I make this wild rice recipe for every holiday dinner, without fail. Like many recipes, I learned it by watching my mom cooking in the kitchen.

I don’t have the calorie count for this recipe, but it is a bit decadent. If you want to make it more low-cal you can replace the bacon with some lean ham, or leave it out altogether for a vegetarian recipe.  

Ingredients

- 1 cup (165 g) of uncooked *wild rice.

This isn’t a lot of rice, but when cooked it will expand to 4 cups!*For this recipe I tried broken rice ($4 a pound at Neechie Foods) for a more economical version. Broken wild rice is half the price of regular wild rice and just as tasty.

- 4 stalks of celery

- ¼ of a large white onion or 5 green onions

- ½ pound of bacon

- 2 cans of mushrooms, or ½ pkg of fresh mushrooms

- seasoning salt and pepper    

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Wild rice is a slow food. I recommend starting the day before you plan to serve this dish. Take your wild rice and rinse it in cold water, then soak it overnight in a pot with lots of water. Don’t refrigerate, just leave it on the kitchen counter.

This will cut down on your cooking time the next day. If you forget to soak your rice, don’t despair. Just cook your rice with lots of water on medium heat until it puffs up, curls at the ends and show its white inner core. This usually takes 1-2.5 hours.

Test it by trying a small amount. Drain if needed when done, then set aside in a large bowl. If you soaked your rice overnight, then cook it for about 30 minutes to an hour over medium heat. Drain if needed, and set aside in a large bowl.

Fry the bacon in a large frying pan over medium heat. While your bacon cooks, chop up your celery, and drain your canned mushrooms. When bacon is done to your liking, take it out of the bacon grease and let it cool in the fridge. Do NOT throw away your bacon grease.

Over low-medium heat, add your celery, onion and mushrooms into the same frying pan you used for the bacon. Season with seasoning salt and pepper, stir well and let it cook for approximately five minutes.  

Dice up your bacon and add it into your frying pan for approximately 1-2 minutes. Now add this into your bowl of cooked wild rice. Stir well and season to taste. Let the rice sit for approximately half an hour before serving so that the flavours can ‘mingle.’

This recipe will make about 6-8 one cup servings.

For bigger festivities, just double the recipe. Enjoy and happy holidays!  

 

 

Joey Stylez - Kool Runnin'

Just because.