Message by Band Manager

I’m Roberto Moretti, band manager for HRFN effective June 7-2021. I moved to Halfway Reserve from the Northwest Territories on May 31, 2021. I lived in both Northwest Territories and Nunavut for roughly nineteen years. I am an accountant by trade and also an experienced band manager.

The 2021-2022 fiscal year was a challenging one due to COVID-19, from self-isolating and wearing masks, delaying infrastructure projects, not being able to travel for meetings and conferences.

My focus back in June 2021 when I first started was to sit down with each manager and determine what needed to be done and what should be my next step. Lots of time was spent on bringing the finance department to where it should have been. The Housing Department was another major focus and continues to be. The health department took time to hire staff and to be able to deliver all the services that the council wanted to be delivered to members. The child and family services department and the same for education department did not require much time given they are well managed. The lands department is very well run by Roslyn Notsea. In O&M (public works) services, Alex Siebert was appointed foreman, and with the existing crew they deliver quality services and they are quite knowledgeable.

I don’t want to go into detail about all the services given. Each manager will give the highlights for their department for the year. All I am going to say is that we renovated several housing units in 2021-2023, and the renovations will continue throughout the 2023-2024 fiscal year. Also, many infrastructure projects that were on hold will be carried out in the 2024 fiscal year and beyond. we accomplished a sizable project of rebuilding all reserve roads and asphalting the roads one of the achievements, and another is building eight new homes also accomplished in the 2022- 2023 fiscal year, as many other projects are ongoing. A community comprehensive plan was created with lots of inputs from the Chief & Council and in 2024-2025 a strategic plan will be created.