Former Tłı̨chǫ executive officer Bertha Rabesca Zoe will be the new Chief of Behchokǫ̀ after defeating incumbent Clifford Daniels.
Rabesca Zoe defeated Daniels by 600 votes to 353 according to results published by the community’s senior administrative officer shortly before 5am on Tuesday.
Daniels had been first elected chief in 2009.
Rabesca Zoe, born and raised in Behchokǫ̀, was legal counsel for the Tłı̨chǫ Government and its director of planning and partnerships before briefly serving as Tłı̨chǫ executive officer.
In an interview with Mary Rose Blackduck broadcast on community radio ahead of the election, Rabesca Zoe said she speaks Tłı̨chǫ fluently, is married to former chief land claims negotiator John B Zoe, and considers the position of chief to be like “wearing two hats” – one as leader of a municipal government and the other as a member of the chiefs’ executive council and Tłı̨chǫ Assembly.
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Asked what her priorities would be if elected, she responded by pointing to the drugs crisis affecting many NWT communities.
“Our people are walking around like zombies – that’s what I hear a lot,” she said, “and so we really need to help our people.”
“I went to a treatment centre twice. I’ve been to counselling. I’ve done self-help books, audio books and spiritual retreats. I understand addictions and what it means to be co-dependent and being a neighbour,” she said in her pitch to Behchokǫ̀ voters, promising she would work “to heal not just ourselves and those that are struggling, but also heal our community and our Nation.”
Mental health supports, violence in the community and housing were other priorities Rabesca Zoe identified.
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“Housing is a huge, huge problem. We have young homeless people in our community. We have people that have honey buckets, in this day and age,” she told Blackduck.
“We shouldn’t have people living in homes where they have no running water, no furnace and honey buckets.
“There’s all these public houses that are boarded up, that aren’t being used. There’s no money to fix them up. We can work together to fix those so there’s more homes available for our people and the waiting list can be reduced. There’s so much to do there.”
Rabesca Zoe also promised to do a better job of keeping people informed, describing them as “dying for information.”
Councillors elected in Behchokǫ̀ on Monday were Stephanie Behrens, Tammy Deschambeault-Steinwand, Skye Ekendia, Edie Erasmus, Mabel Huskey, Titus Lafferty-Rabesca, Mary Adele Mackenzie, Cody Mantla, Rosa Mantla and James Rabesca.
