Government funding for MNS still on hold

Page 1

The Metis Nation-Saskatchewan (MNS) has put its recent election problems behind it and is ready to move on, but the provincial and federal governments aren't quite ready to follow suit.

Both levels of government are continuing to withhold funding to the provincial Metis organization, and that isn't likely to change until a final report on whether its May 26 election was conducted properly has been reviewed. That report, prepared by former provincial chief electoral officer Keith Lampard, was received by the province on Oct 13.

Lampard was called in to investigate the election after a number of complaints were received by the province about the way the election was run. The most visible of these problems surrounded the bid for the position of MNS president, in which one candidate was declared the winner, only to have that win reversed just hours later after it was discovered that one ballot box had been missed during the official count.

In the end it was Saskatoon lawyer Dwayne Roth who took office as president, with Guy Bouvier as vice president, Ray Laliberte as provincial treasurer and Ralph Kennedy as provincial secretary. Twelve area directors were also elected.

Roth and the rest of the provincial Metis council were officially sworn in during a ceremony held on Oct. 7 following a press conference during which Roth indicated the federal government had committed $1.8 in funding for the MNS for this fiscal year, and called on the provincial government to release the $400,000 in funding it has been withholding since June 17. He also called on the province to renew discussions with the MNS on issues such as hunting rights.

But, according to Maynard Sonntag, minister of the new provincial department of First Nations and Metis Relations, the MNS is being a bit premature, both in the announcement of renewed federal funding and in its calls for the province to follow suit.

"Well, from our perspective, nothing has changed," said Sonntag, who held the portfolio for Aboriginal Affairs within the department of Government Relations and Aboriginal Affairs at the time the decision to withhold provincial funding was made.

"In recent discussions with my federal counterparts, they are equally concerned about what took place during the elections in Saskatchewan and have committed to me personally that no funds will be released until they also have a review of the independent analysis of the election, Keith Lampard's report," he said.

Allan MacDonald, director of the Office of the Federal Interlocutor for Metis and Non-Status Indians, clarified the status of a portion of the $1.8 million the MNS is describing as committed federal funding-the $1.175 million the organization says it will be receiving for post-Powley communications. The Supreme Court's decision in the Powley case indicated that Metis people in Canada with a clear link to a stable Metis community have an Aboriginal right to hunt under the Constitution.

"What we have done here is that, following the Powley decision from September 2003 which affirmed that Metis rights existed, the federal government put aside some money in the budget, $20.5 million over the course of a year, about half of which would go to Metis organizations to assist them in identifying Metis harvesters like the Supreme Court said we had to do, to help them do research and help them communicate what the Powley decision means to their members," MacDonald said.

"The MNS, the Metis Nation of Saskatchewan, we've put aside about $1 million, $1.1 million, for their particular organization. No money has flown to that organization as of yet. There's administrative requirements to get the money flowing. They haven't met those requirements yet, and I make no comment as to when we're going to fund or how much we're going to fund of that $1.1 million, but so far nothing has flowed and I can't say when it will flow, if at all."

The money tied to Powley is in no way connected to he federal funding that was suspended in June, MacDonald said. That money was the federal government's portion under a tripartite funding agreement between the MNS, the province and Canada.

"The tripartite agreements are something separate. On the tripartite agreement side we can only fund if the province funds. And as you know the province has decided some time ago they were not going to fund anything. If they didn't fund the tripartite agreements we couldn't fund the tripartite agreements even if we wanted to, because our funding is tied to theirs," McDonald said.