Brandy Stanovich · Woodstock First Nation
Lived experience. Proven leadership.

The money is coming home. Let’s build a Woodstock that works for everyone.

A clear, honest plan from Brandy Stanovich: put our restored revenue to work, chase every dollar we’re owed, and build a fund that pays dividends to our people — for generations.

Read the plan Why this matters
Brandy Stanovich, candidate for Woodstock First Nation, holding an eagle feather and wearing traditional Wolastoqiyik jewellery, in a forest.
Brandy Stanovich
95%
of on-reserve tax revenue (up to $10 million a year) now returns to our community under the 2025 agreement.
1,200+
members who deserve to see that revenue reach their own families.
Sept 2025
when the tax-sharing agreement was signed back into force for our Nation.

The money is coming home. Let’s not waste it.

For almost thirty years, a tax-sharing agreement helped pay for homes, services, and programs in our community. In 2021 it was torn up with a phone call — and we felt every dollar of it, in houses that never got built and supports that got cut.

In September 2025, that agreement was signed back into force. Today, 95% of the tax revenue from on-reserve business comes back to Woodstock First Nation on the first ten million dollars each year. That is a once-in-a-generation chance to change things here.

But money coming back is not the same as money reaching your kitchen table. The real question in this election is simple: will that revenue be managed openly and spent where it changes lives — or not? Brandy’s answer is a plan you can hold her to, not a promise you have to take on faith.

You can’t fix what you won’t name.

Honest about the problems we face

Too few homes, too many full houses

Across Canada, nearly half the homes on reserves need major repairs, and overcrowding runs far higher than off-reserve. Here, families wait years for a place of their own. Housing is the single biggest thing holding our quality of life back.

Jobs that make our young people leave

When the only steady work is off-reserve, our youth move away to build their lives somewhere else — and often don’t come back. We are losing our future to other towns.

Revenue that doesn’t always reach you

Money can flow into a community and still never reach the people it belongs to. Members have every right to see where the dollars go and to feel the benefit directly.

Infrastructure we shouldn’t have to fight for

Clean water, working sewer, reliable internet — the basics every other community takes for granted should simply be a given here, not a project we beg for.

Wellness that gets left for last

Mental health, addictions recovery, and real care for our elders need steady, year-after-year support — not one-time funding that disappears.

Seven priorities. One future.

A real, realistic plan for Woodstock

Funded by the revenue that’s now coming home, matched with federal housing and infrastructure programs — and run with open books. Nothing here depends on magic. It depends on will.

Homes for every family

The one thing that changes a life the fastest. We build, and we repair — without the years of waiting.

  • Build steadily. Put our restored tax revenue to work alongside CMHC and federal housing dollars to build new homes every year, not every decade.
  • Repair and winterize. Fix and insulate the homes we already have, so no family is left in a house that’s falling apart around them.
  • Hire our own. Train and employ our members to do the building, so the wages and the skills stay in the community.
  • A path to ownership. Create a fair rent-to-own program so members can finally own the roof over their heads.

Jobs that stay home

A good job you don’t have to leave the community to find. That’s how we keep our families together.

  • Our own trades company. Stand up a Woodstock First Nation construction and trades business off the back of the housing program — steady, year-round work.
  • Grow the Guardians. Expand our land-stewardship and forestry work: caring for our territory, and getting paid to do it.
  • Train close to home. Partner with the college right here in Woodstock for apprenticeships and certified trades training.
  • Never lose a summer. Guarantee summer and co-op jobs for our youth every single year.

Our highway, our advantage

We sit right on the Trans-Canada and close to the border. Few communities have a location this good — let’s finally use it.

  • Modernize the stops. Upgrade our fuel and retail locations with real trucker services, a proper store, and EV fast-charging for the traffic already passing by.
  • Get on the highway signs. Thousands of vehicles pass us every day, and most businesses don’t even know New Brunswick’s sign programs exist. We point that traffic straight to our fuel, food, and market — one of the cheapest wins there is.
  • Higher-margin retail. Move into better-earning lines, including responsibly run, regulated cannabis retail.
  • A reason to stop. Build a Wolastoqiyik market and eatery that travellers actually pull over for.
  • Learn from our neighbours. Study what’s worked at Grey Rock and Tobique, and build our own version of it — on our terms.

Value from the land and river

We already fish, log, and steward this land. Let’s keep more of the value in our own hands.

  • Finish what we catch. Add storage, processing, and our own Wolastoq brand to our fishery, instead of selling it off raw and cheap.
  • Forestry for the long haul. Manage our forests — including our new reserve lands — for lasting income, not the quick cut.
  • Power from the sun. Put solar on community buildings and homes to cut energy bills and keep those savings right here.

Culture as economy

Who we are is also something we can build on — with pride, and with paycheques.

  • Tourism on the Wolastoq. Develop river and cultural experiences that share our story on our own terms, and bring visitors’ dollars in.
  • Grow our voice. Build Skigin Radio into a real community station and a training ground for our young people in media.
  • Language and youth. Invest in Wolastoqey language and youth programming — our identity is not optional, and it is worth paying for.

Child and family services, grounded in our own authority

Our children are our future, and the right to care for them belongs to us.

An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families affirms our jurisdiction over child and family services and sets national principles to guide them. We work with members, Elders, families, and leadership to build a system rooted in our own laws, culture, and values.

  • Exercise our jurisdiction. Work toward taking up Woodstock First Nation’s authority under the Act, so decisions about our children and families are guided by our own laws and community priorities.
  • Put prevention and family support first. Develop accessible supports — counselling, parenting help, and culturally grounded services — to strengthen families and keep children safely connected to family and community.
  • Train and support local workers. Build the capacity of community members to deliver these services with cultural understanding and strong professional standards.
  • Ensure accountability. Put clear decision-making processes in place, with real ways for families to raise concerns and proper oversight.

Open books, fair share

None of this matters if you can’t trust how it’s run. This is how we earn that trust — and keep it.

  • Business out of politics. Run our enterprises through a development corporation kept at arm’s length from council, so decisions are made for the community, not for an election.
  • A report you can read. Publish a plain-language statement to members every year: what came in, and exactly where it went.
  • A share you can feel. Set aside a portion of profits for direct community benefit that members actually notice.
  • Protect the money. Bring in professional financial management so our revenue is safeguarded and grows over time.

The biggest idea of all.

A fund that works for Woodstock — forever

The plan above is how we earn and save. This is how we turn money into wealth that never runs out — and make sure it reaches our people for generations, not just for one year.

Our land claim

The land we never gave up

Woodstock is one of six Wolastoqey communities in the title claim to our traditional territory — the Wolastoq watershed, more than half of New Brunswick. We never surrendered this land when our ancestors signed Peace and Friendship Treaties, and the claim says so plainly.

It isn’t won, and it won’t be quick. The courts have confirmed we can pursue title over public Crown land and seek compensation from the government, and we are also at the table working toward a negotiated settlement. We’re not here to take anyone’s home or farm — we’re here to be made right for what was taken.

The point isn’t to spend money we don’t have yet. It’s to be ready. Too many communities have won big and watched it slip away. We build the structure first — so that when land or a settlement comes, it builds something that lasts.

The legacy trust

The one tool only a Nation like ours has

Because our Nation is treated as a government, we can place a settlement into a legacy trust that — structured correctly — grows sheltered from the taxes an ordinary trust or business would pay. That is an advantage almost no one else in the country has, and we should use it.

The rule is simple: lock away the capital, invest it carefully, and spend only what it earns. The big win itself is never touched — it works for us, year after year, without end.

This is already being done

When Sturgeon Lake First Nation settled with Ottawa for $152 million, they put tens of millions into a legacy fund so there would always be money for the community for generations, set aside a separate fund to grow their economy, and still put cash directly into members’ hands. That is the model — and we can build our own version of it.

The dividends

Wealth you can feel — and a cycle we break

What the fund earns comes back to the community as a steady dividend: more homes, better schooling, real care for our elders, and seed money and encouragement for members who want to start something of their own.

Let’s be honest about why this matters. Too many of our people — especially our young — have been worn down by poverty and lost hope, and we have all seen how that despair can turn into addiction. The answer was never shame or blame. It is opportunity, purpose, and support: a real job, a business of your own, a reason to get up in the morning, and help within reach when someone needs it. A community that invests in its people gives them something to build, and something to believe in.

Money already on the table

A team that leaves nothing behind

Right now there is real government money for housing, business, infrastructure, clean energy, and training — sitting there, waiting. The catch is that most of it is handed out by application. If no one writes the proposal, it simply goes to another community. Small Nations miss out not because they don’t qualify, but because no one was assigned to go and get it.

So we build a dedicated funding team whose only job is to chase every dollar we’re entitled to — federal and provincial programs alike — and to grab the easy wins others leave behind, right down to the cheap highway signs most businesses never apply for. Some of those same programs will help pay for the team itself. Done right, it returns many times what it costs — turning paperwork into homes, jobs, and businesses.

Earn it. Protect it. Grow it. Share it — for every generation.

Strip away the plans and the dollars.

A better life — not someday, now

A warm, safe home

For your family — and a real path to one day owning it.

Work close to home

A job right here, so your kids don’t have to leave to build a life.

Water you can trust

Clean water, working sewer, and the infrastructure every community deserves.

Care for our people

Steady support for elders, youth, and anyone who’s struggling.

Food security

Gardens, greenhouses, and traditional foods you can count on.

Our language, our pride

Children who grow up knowing exactly who they are.

Why Brandy Stanovich

I’m Brandy Stanovich — a mother, grandmother, and proud member of Woodstock First Nation. I’ve spent years in Indigenous governance and advocacy: as President of Indigenous Women of the Wabanaki Territories, as Vice President and Secretary of the Native Women’s Association of Canada Board, and as an advisor in community wellness programming at the Resiliency Lodge in Chelsea, Quebec.

I’ve restored an organization to full legal and financial compliance, secured and managed government funding for community projects, and worked alongside Elders, ministers, and national leadership to get real results — from Red Dress Day commemorations to the fight to protect Miramichi Lake. I’ve seen firsthand what steady, accountable leadership can build here.

I’m running because I know how to turn a plan into results, not just promises. I know how to manage revenue openly, chase down funding most communities miss, and build something that lasts past one term. That’s the work I want to bring home to Woodstock — for my family, for yours, and for the next seven generations.

A Woodstock that works — for real, and for everyone.

This is your community.

Have your say

Brandy wants to hear from every member — your ideas, your questions, and the things that worry you. Reach out anytime, in whatever way is easiest. Nothing about our future should be decided without your voice in it.

Call or text(506) 323-8882 Emailmuwinesq@gmail.com

A Woodstock that works — for real, and for everyone.

Not a slogan. A plan you can hold us to — built to lift up every member of our Nation, this generation and the next.

Vote Brandy Stanovich · Woodstock First Nation
Election day: Sunday, November 15, 2026  ·  Where to vote: Band Hall, 3 Wulastook Court, Woodstock First Nation, NB E7M 4K6