Government pulls the plug on METSI

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The trouble-plagued Metis Nation-Saskatchewan (MNS) has suffered another blow with the announcement that the federal government won't be renewing its contract with Metis Employment and Training of Saskatchewan Inc. (METSI), the MNS organization responsible for providing education and training opportunities to Metis people.

Since 1999, METSI had been operating as an Aboriginal Human Resource Development Agreement (AHRDA) holder under the Aboriginal Human Resources Development Strategy, designed to improve access to jobs for Aboriginal people.

"The agreement ended on March 31, 2006," said Normand Bergeron, assistant manager of media relations with Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. "Service Canada has indicated that it's not renewing the agreement with MNS/METSI due to the risk associated with a history of financial irregularities, ongoing MNS/METSI police investigations and previous criminal investigations."

Service Canada is the federal government's new network for one-stop service delivery. One of its responsibilities is monitoring of agreements under the Aboriginal Human Resources Development Strategy.

Now that the federal government has chosen not to renew its contract with METSI, it will have to look elsewhere for another organization to fill the void. With METSI no longer designated as an AHRDA holder, the only remaining AHRDA holder in the province is the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations' Saskatchewan Indian Training Assessment Group Inc.

But students who had been receiving funding through METSI won't be left high and dry, Bergeron said. In the short-term, responsibility for managing the AHRDA program has been given over to Deloitte & Touche, who will ensure students involved in training programs continue to get their funding.

In order to come up with a long-term solution, the government will be accepting proposals from organizations interested in replacing METSI as an AHRDA service provider. That new service provider need not be a Metis organization, Bergeron said.

"We're not being that specific because it will be determined based on whomever meets all of the requirements. Everything will be in the call for proposal and then you need to clearly demonstrate that you meet all of the requirements of the call for proposal."

Once the call for proposal process is launched the details will be available on the Service Canada Web site at www.servicecanada.gc.ca.

While problems within the MNS itself-not the least of which are the numerous criminal charges that have been laid in connection to the organization's last election in 2004, the recent resignation of MNS president Dwayne Roth and the federal and provinicial governments' ongoing freeze on MNS funding-appear to be the primary factor in the decision not to renew the contract with METSI, the employment and training organization hasn't been without its controversies.

In May 2002, the department of Human Resources Development Canada temporarily cut off its funding to all 12 of METSI's regional offices because of problems with the way the government funds were being spent. An audit showed money that should have gone to METSI programming was instead spent on a variety of unrelated expenses, including making payments on a METSI employee's mortgage.

When the five-year contract with METSI came up for renewal in 2005, the federal government chose to enter into a contract good for only one year. Now it's decided not to renew it at all.

And METSI is not alone. Another MNS organization, the Metis Addictions Council of Saskatchewan Inc., was in hot water in 2004 over misspending of funds by members of the executive committee. That committee has since been ousted by the provincial government. A forensic audit of the MACSI books were completed and the results were turned over to the RCMP. The RCMP investigation is still ongoing.