Amerindian Affairs Minister – No NTC conference this year

Amerindian Affairs Minister, Pauline Sukhai announced that there will be no National Toshaos
Council (NTC) conference in 2022. She said no budgetary allocations have been made for the
annual meet, as some Amerindian leaders continue to flout the gazetted COVID-19 guidelines
and refuse to be vaccinated.

A traditional Amerindian home

The revelation was made during the examination of the estimates for the Amerindian Affairs
Ministry, last Monday evening.  “We’ve customarily (been) holding it every year. We were
unable to hold it during the COVID period, so we have catered if the leaders become much more
responsible and support the government’s COVID-19 effort, we may get back to some form of
normalcy and we’ll be happy to hold NTC,” Sukhai revealed.
Minister Sukhai had pointed out previously, that many leaders refused to be vaccinated despite
the growing number of positive cases and the guidance of health experts that vaccination is the
best way to beat the pandemic. She said that the NTC is a semi-autonomous body comprising all
Toshaos. The executive committee is formed with one Toshao from each of the 10 regions. The
NTC promotes good governance in the villages, as well as prepares strategies and plans for the
protection, conservation, and sustainable management of Amerindian lands and other resources.
Sukhai noted that it is also responsible for crafting plans to reduce poverty and improve access to
health and education and other critical services. She disclosed that the NTC conference gives
village leaders a forum to engage the president and government ministers and expand
development acute to Amerindians.
Nevertheless, Sukhai said that over $40M has been budgeted to train Amerindian leaders in good
governance among other areas. “The allocation caters for the training of Community
Development Officers and village councils in terms of training and governance and record-
keeping,” Sukhai noted.  She declared that additional training will also be given to Amerindian
Community Support Officers, (CSOs), to cater to their villages’ needs.