Chief Joe Alphonse has been re-elected as Chief of Tl’etinqox (Anaham) First Nation following Monday’s election for chief and council.
“It was definitely a humbling experience to get elected in for the sixth term,” Alphonse told MyCariboonow Tuesday.
“This last term seemed like a really long term. We had the 2017 fires to deal with and it’s been catch up ever since. To have a community to vote you back and to win by the votes that I did, it’s very humbling.”
Alphonse received a total of 164 votes, with runner-up Leslie Stump having received 78 votes.
He adds that Tl’etinqox has 12 councilors and four new councilors were elected in.
“We had four really good councilors that were elected out so we’re definitely going to miss them but we got some rookies in there, and that’s pretty consistent with our election,” Alphonse said.
“There’s always three or four new turnover every election so it keeps things fresh and it keeps things moving. To run a First Nations community today you have a lot of regulations so it’s going to be a big learning curve for some, but for the majority, it will allow the community to continue to move forward in a consistent way.”
Tl’etinqox (Anaham) is located 100 km west of Williams Lake along Highway 20.