Reader says reports mislead

Page 6

Dear Editor:

Recent articles by Eddie Keen (Edmonton Sun, October 15/87) and Windspeaker have presented a very negative picture of the financial affairs of Buffalo Lake Metis Settlement.

While Buffalo Lake may have had some financial problems in the past, suggestions of current mismanagement are unfounded and deplorably misleading.

It has been suggested, for example, that audited financial statements for the Settlement's accounts are not available. This is totally false. Copies of these audited statements are available from the Settlement office. The audited statements do show a deficit, due primarily to overexpenditures on community programming. This deficit, however, has been addressed by a financial restructuring and is no longer an issue.

It should be pointed out that past overexpenditures were to a large extent made necessary by the provincial government's under ? resource of critical programs. It is therefore somewhat inappropriate to criticize past settlement councils for their attempts to address the needs of their people.

At present, the settlement is involved in self-governing negotiations with the province. AS part of this process, we are involved in a joint program with the Government of Alberta which will greatly increase managerial capacity and expertise on the settlement.

Regrettably, the journalists involved failed to take the time to uncover the actual picture of Buffalo Lake's financial affairs. Hearsay and assumption have taken the place of responsible reporting.

To the people of Buffalo Lake and their elected council the entire issue seems to be one of manipulation of the media by those who would seek to advance themselves.

On our settlement when we have a dispute, we always make it a practice to hear both sides of any argument. In future we hope that our settlement will be shown this same basic courtesy if a controversy arises.

Now, our settlement must suffer the results of an unjustly damaged public image, and we must begin the uphill climb of rebuilding our credibility.

Yours truly,

Horace Patenaude

Chairman

Buffalo Lake