Ousted Metis treasurer cries foul, while VP says all is well
As soon as the Metis Nation- Saskatchewan held its long awaited election in May, it began bending the rules, says the accountant elected as treasurer and then quickly pushed out.
The MNS Provincial Metis Council (PMC) voted at its June meeting to make the new president, Glen McCallum, and incumbent vice-president Gerald Morin the signing authorities for the organization, although the treasurer is supposed to be one of the signers, said Mary Ann Morin, a chartered professional accountant.
She said she threatened to quit if her concerns weren’t taken seriously. Then, in a letter to Indigenous Affairs ministers Carolyn Bennett and Jane Philpott, dated Sept. 22, she formally complained that her treasurer’s email had been tampered with at the Metis Nation office.
Days later, the PMC voted to accept her resignation. She maintains she did not resign and it wasn’t her intention.
“I was surprised I got elected ... These people have been involved in the MN-S. I was the one person who didn’t fit in with their future plans,” Mary Ann Morin said.
She was elected by a margin of more than 1,000 votes over her nearest rival, having run on a platform of accountability and on her expertise as an accountant.
Vice-president Gerald Morin said he doesn’t want to comment on “the details of what (Mary Ann Morin) is saying,” but that the PMC has accepted her resignation.
“We’re confident everything has been done properly,” he said.
The MN-S constitution says an executive member who resigns can be replaced at the provincewide, semi-annual Metis Nation Legislative Assembly (MNLA).
The last MNLA was in February 2017, and the next one is now overdue. It was the lack of those semi-annual meetings that led to the organization’s loss of federal funding in 2014.
Gerald Morin said the MN-S has never been able to afford to meet its constitutional “noble objective” of holding two assemblies per year, adding there might be one in April.
The vacant role of the treasurer is being played by the PMC.
A transitional committee is overseeing a process to restore financial management by March 31 to the MN-S from Ernst Young.
The transitional team includes Richard Quintal, a federal official seconded to the MN-S, former provincial cabinet minister Louise Simard, and Dale Leclair of the Metis National Council, among others, Gerald Morin said.
“We communicate and work together to make sure that all of the financial and administrative issues are being addressed on those matters that normally would be dealt with from the treasurer’s office.”
The transitional team will work with MN-S to hire a CEO and chief financial officer as soon as possible, he said.
Mary Ann Morin said she is also concerned politicians have too much involvement in the Metis citizenship registry.
The elected leaders have not hired an executive director but there are now office staff and people working in newly established Metis citizenship registry offices around the province, she said.
“We’re not supposed to be involved in hiring.”
Days after the May 27 election, president Glen McCallum said “this time” work on the citizenship registry would be at “arm’s length away from politics to be able to have a fair registration for the people.”
Gerald Morin said MN-S leaders sought advice from the Gabriel Dumont Institute in hiring about eight staff for the Saskatoon registry office and others at seven regional offices.
“I’m quite comfortable the constitution has been followed in every case,” he said. “They’re accepting registry applications and getting on with business of registering citizens of MN-S.”
He said it is likely the federal government will audit about 4,500 people who already have Saskatchewan Metis citizenship cards after questions were raised about cards being issued after the MN-S office closed in 2015.
Knowing who holds Metis rights will be especially important as land, harvesting and self government rights are secured, he said.
The MN-S has been meeting with the federal government to establish an “exploratory table on implementation of Metis Nation rights in Saskatchewan,” he said.
Manitoba already has an agreement to begin negotiating and Morin said he hopes Saskatchewan will sign with Ottawa by the end of the year.
“We’ve never had a table to talk about the implementation of our Metis rights, in our entire history. So we’re excited about that,” he said.
He said he hopes to work with the province, too, since the courts have confirmed it also has a fiduciary responsibility to the Metis.
Also high on the agenda is negotiating settlement of a lands and resources claim launched by MN-S 23 years ago. It pertains to a test claim area in northwest Saskatchewan from Ile à la Cross-Green Lake to Buffalo Narrows-La Loche.