The Manitoba Métis Federation has put together a blue ribbon panel of business experts to advise the organization on how to invest billions of dollars expected from a recent land claim ruling.
Members of the Legacy Fund advisory panel include former prime minister Paul Martin, Hartley Richardson, Sanford Riley, Harvey Secter and Eric Newell.
MMF President David Chartrand says with the sheer magnitude of money that is expected to flow from the Supreme Court ruling, the organization feels it is important to seek advice from the greatest minds currently in Canadian business — and they are happy all have agreed to take part.
“I asked myself, “Who can I pull together?”, he says. “And so it didn’t take me long to figure out in order to get anything done of this stature, and given the fact it’s going to be humongous it its context — Canada themselves acknowledged this is worth billions of dollars — I said to myself, ‘I am going to get myself a powerhouse’.”
The advisory panel will advise the MMF on how to invest the Legacy Fund in such priorities as health, education and housing.
In March, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the federal government did not honour land agreements it made with Louis Riel and the Métis Nation at the Red River Settlement dating back to 1870.