LAKELAND - It will be mostly familiar faces taking the seats of the Frog Lake Cree Nation Band Council.
Members of the Cree Nation stepped up to the polls last week where they voted to keep most of their band council the same, including their chief.
Over 750 band members took the time to vote, a number re-elected Coun. Jason Quinney was proud of.
"We had a huge turnout with all of the restrictions in place... We were very happy to see that everyone wore masks and social distancing was done," he said.
Gregory Desjarlais remains chief after receiving 370 of 760 votes. Making up the rest of council are Quinney, with 268, Collin Quinney, with 189, Clifton Cross, he received 218, Stoney Dion, with 213, and receiving the most votes with 332, Preston Faithful.
There were 44 candidates running for a spot on council, and eight hopefuls for the position of chief.
For Quinney, seeing voters re-elect most of the former band council is "exciting for a number of reasons."
"One it means the people are happy with what we've been doing and would like to maintain the same spirit we've kept, and it also gives us confidence to carry on what we've already started doing," he expressed.
Those living in the Edmonton-area or Saskatoon region could take advantage of the advance polls on Monday, April 26, while members living in and around Frog Lake cast their ballots April 27.
"I am looking forward to a brighter future in Frog Lake," Quinney said, adding one example is how the band council has started to diversify their economy.
"We're an oil and gas community and our revenues were reliant on oil and gas for so long. Due to that industry, as everyone around the world is feeling the crash of that, we have had to diversify and we're very happy we've been able to capitalize on some of our resources."
