Band Council Remote Decision-Making
In the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, many organizations are
wondering how they can make key decisions without meeting in large
groups. Band Councils are no exception. These challenging times may
require that certain aspects of Chief & Council function as
"essential services" (another topic soon discussed in
this series) for delivery of health, social services, community
emergency response, community safety and infrastructure services,
to name but a few areas where Chief & Council are required.
Band Council decision-making processes are prescribed by the
Indian Act (the "Act") and the
Indian Band Council Procedure Regulations (the
"Regulations"). The Act requires that
council decisions be made at "duly convened" council
meetings, which requires a majority of councillors to be present at
a council meeting in order to pass a Band Council resolution
("BCR"). This requirement is set out in
section 2(3)(b) of the Act as follows:
