Aboriginal Coalition Removed From Grant List
Thursday, July 09, 2009 at 13:15
Some questions are being raised about a newly-formed Aboriginal advocacy group in the province.
A government official says the Aboriginal Affairs Coalition of Saskatchewan has been removed from the list of organizations that are eligible for provincial funding.
The group came into being last year with the help of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples.
The coalition is essentially a lobby group for First Nations and Metis citizens who don’t feel properly represented by other Aboriginal groups.
Laur’Lei Silzer of the Ministry of Justice says the coalition failed to file its annual financial data back in February.
As a result, it was removed from the corporate registry in late June.
She says the group will have to meet with the government’s corporations branch if it wants to be reinstated.
Silzer says the province doesn’t fund organizations that aren’t registered, “because there’s a certain legitimacy that comes with actually having a registration number, and a non-profit number or business number from the provincial government”.
Meanwhile, one of the coalition’s board members says he is having trouble accessing financial information from the group.
Ian Fosseneuve of Cumberland House says, according to the coalition’s constitution, he should be allowed to view where money is being spent and what proposals are being written.
AACS President Kim Beaudin has been unavailable for comment.