(Slave Lake) – Brenda Genaille is the new district captain for Métis Lesser Slave Lake District 21.
According to preliminary results on www.metislectionsab.com, Genaille received 82 votes and Hilda Faye Lambert 75 votes in a close race.
District 21 is part of Otipemisiwak Métis Government the Métis Nation Within Alberta (MNA), formerly Métis Nation of Alberta.
From Oct. 20-27, MNA citizens who live in the Lesser Slave Lake District 21 voted for a district captain.
The Lesser Slave Lake district includes Slave Lake, High Prairie, McLennan, surrounding areas, and south to Fox Creek.
The district captain and district councillors act similar to a municipal government, making decisions on how to use funding and advocacy for the district. District 21 has an office in Slave Lake.
This was the first election held in District 21 for the district council. On July 18, 2025, Slave Lake Métis Local was transformed into District 21 council. The full transition of Region 5 into District 21 and 22 is still in the works, as it is dependent on finalizing the self-government agreement between Otipemisiwak and the Government of Canada.
The district captain is a full-time position. Councillors are paid honoraria for meetings.
The District 21 council has seats for a district captain and four councillors. In this byelection, three people ran to be a councillor and were acclaimed including Shane Combs and Susan Cunningham from Slave Lake and Dolores Pruden Barrie-Cox, from High Prairie.
During the transition, Combs was the interim-district captain. Cunningham was the vice-president for the Slave Lake Local.
The district council will serve a two-year term to line up with the general Otipemisiwak elections which will be in the fall 2027. The first Otipemisiwak elections were during the fall of 2023.
Otipemisiwak divides Alberta into 22 districts. Each will eventually have a district council and a citizens’ representative.
Grant Lacombe is the citizens’ representative for District 21, which is similar to an MLA or MP, as he sits on the citizens’ council, which has representatives from each of the 22 districts.
Pearl Lorentzen
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter