Old and new Sask. Metis leaders eager to get to work
Resuming work on the Metis citizenship registry and hunting rights will be high on the to-do list for Saskatchewan’s newly elected Metis government, says President Glen McCallum.
Within days of the May 27 vote, federal officials confirmed restoration of up to $4.5 million per year in funding to the Metis Nation-Saskatchewan (MN-S), which includes funding for the citizenship registry project, McCallum said.
That work was interrupted when funding was halted in 2014 because the MN-S had failed to hold the required twice-yearly assemblies for several years. Now that the requirements have been met, the funding is returned, including a portion earmarked for the registry, McCallum said.
“This time (the process will be at) arm’s length away from politics to be able to have a fair registration for the people to register and involving the regions at the same time,” he said. Metis traditional hunting rights remain an important issue as the province recognizes them in some areas but not others. There are challenges before the courts now, including one in Meadow Lake, McCallum said.
“We just can’t have just a small percentage of Metis able to hunt and harvest. It has to be addressed as a province,” he said.
McCallum, who lives in Pinehouse, represented his region on the previous Provincial Metis Council (PMC) and ran unsuccessfully for vice-president in 2007.
A longtime worker in addictions treatment, social development and adult education, McCallum is well known in Saskatoon, where he worked for 16 years.
Newly elected Treasurer Mary Ann Morin is a Chartered Professional Accountant, originally from Green Lake. She now lives in Prince Albert.
“I felt as a Metis Nation person we needed more of a stronger financial person in the executive. (The people) want accountability, communication and transparency,” she said.
Morin’s expertise is likely to be welcomed by the government, which has restored funding on the condition the MN-S continues to retain expert financial advisory services to ensure it will have adequate financial administrative support as it gets back to work.
Ernst and Young has been doing the job since February 2016.
Re-elected Vice-President Gerald Morin said 11 of 16 members of the PMC and executive are newcomers.
“We’ve got a lot of new people at the table. It’s going to make a fairly significant difference. It’s a lot of new blood. A lot of fresh ideas at the table, new perspectives combined with some of the people who’ve been there before. I think that combination is going to be really good,” Morin said.
The elections of McCallum, Gerald Morin and Mary Ann Morin were confirmed Friday by Chief Electoral Officer Loretta Metzger, but the secretary position will have to go to a judicial recount because the margin of victory was less than two per cent between Ashley Norton of Buffalo Narrows and Lisa McCallum of Saskatoon.
Norton was the unofficial winner by 38 votes until a reporting mixup was spotted during the official checking process.
That gave McCallum an eightvote majority, Metzger said.
“Either way, it had to go to a judicial recount,” Metzger said.
The regional representatives were officially declared Friday, as on election day.
Among the returning members is Earl Cook, who was acclaimed in Northern Region 1.
Cook, from Cumberland House, will be awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws on June 7 at the University of Saskatchewan for his work in indigenous education, which included lobbying for the creation of the Department of Indigenous Studies at the U of S and the Gabriel Dumont Institute of Native Studies and Applied Research.
He was an instructor and administrator in the Northern Teacher Education Program and is considered a leading expert in Aboriginal culture and languages.