Métis organizations at both the federal and provincial levels continue to grapple with issues of fiscal accountability.
A recently released audit calls on the federal government to recover $1.35 million in ineligible expenses claimed by the Métis National Council between 2008 and 2012.
In a 2012 audit, the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan is taken to task for excessive executive compensation and ineligible travel expenses.
In response to the MNC audit, the Department of Aboriginal Affairs says in an emailed statement, “Immediate steps were taken to ensure these issues were addressed, and in April 2013 the MNC agreed to a way forward and signed a Governance and Financial Accountability Accord which commits them to a higher transparency and accountability standard than any other Aboriginal Representative Organization.”
“We expect that the Métis National Council will continue taking the necessary steps to strengthen its financial accountability to its members and all Canadians.”
However, MNS President Robert Doucette says while his organization has taken concrete steps to address issues identified in a Hallux report, he has seen little to indicate the MNC is dealing with its issues of financial accountability.
“We have worked really hard over the last two years to deal with the key issues that were reviewed in the Hallux report and there was two categories – administrative and governance,” he says. “I don’t see that happening with the Métis National Council.”
Nevertheless, MNS vice-president Gerald Morin questions whether Doucette and others have really dealt with the Hallux report since the Provincial Métis Council has not been involved in any of these financial discussions.
“If they have been, we haven’t seen any evidence of that,” he says. “The discussions have not involved myself, for example, as vice-president of the organization.”
Conservative MP Rob Clarke has recently called for federal funding to be suspended to the MNS until some of the organization’s fiscal and governance issues are resolved.