Funding scandal puts good work on hold

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Until March 31, George Fayant was co-ordinating a program that provided education and job training to the Metis people of the Fort Qu'Appelle District.

Fayant himself is now out of a job, thanks to a funding scandal inside the Metis Employment and Training Saskatchewan (METSI) program.

Despite a clean audit in the Fort Qu'Appelle operation, Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) has cut off funding for all 12 of METSI's regional offices.

Fayant is angry. But, he admits, he's not too sure just who he should be angry at.

"We've done nothing wrong here," Fayant said. "I've been told several times that our office has been the jewel of the program.

"Several of our polices and procedures were used by other regions around the province ... and yet we're being treated as if we're one of the bad guys.

"We had no political interference from the MNS (Metis Nation of Saskatchewan). We here at this office were allowed to do our jobs. Up until last Friday (March 31), I had the best administrator, the best employment counselor ... and they're not here anymore."

And the people the program served-Metis people, who have incomes far below the provincial average and who are more likely not to have the necessary technical skills to get available jobs-are going to be the big losers, he said.

METSI was an affiliated program with the MNS. It was created to administer funds from HRDC that would go to qualified Metis people to get skills and job training through programs.

Those eligible would get money to cover the costs of tuition, books and/or living expenses while taking courses through facilities such as SIAST, regional colleges, private colleges or the Gabriel Dumont Institute.

However, the program, which began in 1997, has been riddled with controversy over the way funds were distributed.

In the last two fiscal years ending March 31, 2001, HRDC estimates that about $1.2 million of the $20 million program was spent in "overpayments"-expenses either deemed ineligible or made without documentation.

An audit completed last year indicated that much of that "overpayment" was spent by regional offices on goods and services that had nothing to do with the METSI program.

These overpayments ranged from paying for lawyers, advertising, printing a magazine, a Metis citizenship registry, expenses related to the Metis Nation of Saskatchewan assembly, consulting fees charged to a former MNS president getting money for lobbying, paying a METSI employee's mortgage, and buying goods such as framed artworks, printed mugs, and laser-engraved pens.

In a press conference last week in Saskatoon, MNS president Clem Chartier estimated the overpayments at between $300,000 to $400,000.

Details of the audit that prompted HRDC to pull the funding plug on METSI were first leaked to a Saskatoon newspaper. Those documents showed that no such overpayment problems existed in the Fort Qu'Appelle branch.

But HRDC couldn't restart funding to the Fort Qu'Appelle METSI branch even if it wanted to, said Brian Harris, HRDC's regional director for Saskatchewan.

"The problem is not with the Fort Qu'Appelle office, but with the Metis Nation of Saskatchewan," he said. "Some of the regions have significant amounts of overpayment, and some have very little problems.

"But HRDC did not sign a funding agreement for the METSI program with the 12 different regions. We signed it with the MNS, and all the problems have to be resolved before we can move on to the next phase."

Fayant expressed frustration with the political and organizational leadership of the MNS executive and many of its regions, which appeared to allow the overspending to continue until HRDC pulled the plug.

"Up until last year, the flexibility in funding was a lot greater than it is now," Fayant said.

"It's unfortunate that the flexibility had been abused."

Overall, the $10.3 million METSI program provided financial assistance to 1,308 primary clients throughout the province last year.

As well, he Fort Qu'Appelle METSI office formed partnerships with educational institutes, which allowed the program to send more students to classes with the same funding dollars, Fayant said.

"We had a lot of plans for this (upcoming) year, and obviously they're all on hold. Our office went out of our way to create some very good partnerships-Parkland College, Southeast College, SIAST ... and they're stunned by this as much as we are.

"They're affected by this. Their reputations are on the line as well."