MSGC president to show respect by attending Getty funeral

March 4, 2016

Randy Hardy plans to attend the state funeral for former Progressive Conservative Premier Don Getty on Saturday.

“He will be sadly missed by those around my age, people with grey hair. We owe a great debt of gratitude to him,” said Hardy, president of the Metis Settlement General Council.

Getty passed away on Feb. 26 at the age of 82.

Hardy worked closely with the former premier on what became the Métis Settlements Act, passed in 1990, which turned over control of 1.25 million acres of land affirming eight Métis settlements in northern Alberta.

“He treated us with the utmost respect and dignity. He came to the negotiating table and treated us as equals,” said Hardy, who noted that Getty travelled north to the Kikino Metis Settlement in 1989 to sign the Alberta Metis Settlements Accord. Four pieces of legislation resulted from that, including the Metis Settlement Act.

Beyond the negotiations, which resulted in self-governance for the Metis, Getty ensured that, through the Metis Settlements Land Protection Act, the number of Metis settlements could not be pared down anymore. At one point there were 12 Metis settlements. Today, there are eight.

“He also went further, because our ultimate goal was to entrench our land base in the Constitution Act,” said Hardy. “That was something that required the federal government’s participation and at that time they weren’t too receptive to the idea.”

Getty instead “came up with a creative way” and protected the Metis land base through amendment of the Alberta Act, which is part of the Constitution Act. Now, says Hardy, the only way Metis can lose their land is through a provincial referendum.

“The Metis settlements owe a great debt of gratitude to Mr. Getty for having the foresight and the boldness to make this deal with the Metis settlements,” said Hardy.

While Hardy says all the premiers that have followed Getty have been good for the MSGC to work with, there was still something special about Getty.

“He was more understanding, compassionate and open-minded in Metis having self-government and having the ability to determine our own destiny so to speak,” said Hardy. “He was a very friendly man. He was very approachable.”

Condolence books will be available until end of day Friday at McDougall Centre, in Calgary, and at the Provincial Building, in Stettler (Getty served as MLA in Stettler); and at the Legislature rotunda in Edmonton until March 6.

The state funeral will be held on Saturday at 11 a.m. at All Saints’ Anglican Cathedral in downtown Edmonton. There will be limited public seating, available on a first-come, first seated basis. The service will be livestreamed at alberta.ca/don-getty-memorial.cfm.