Is "Trach" in trouble?

Murray "Chief Two Briefcases" Trachtenberg
www.ptlaw.mb.ca; mtrachtenberg@ptlaw.mb.ca

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post, "Traching!"

I heard today that the government won't fund the rental of the MMF headquarters office on Henry Avenue. David (Chartrand) charges each program for rental space there. Apparently the feds said no more, the Federation owns the building so they have to cover their own costs. What I see here is President Chartrand will have to cut staff by 50% or more. That will mean less money for "Trach."

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Dear Anonymous:

Thank you for writing. Makes perfect sense when you think about it. There's already a rumour swirling around the federal government is looking at not allowing MMF headquarters to charge the automatic 15% management fee before doling out tax dollars to the regions. Since public money helped purchace 150 Henry Avenue why should its programs then have to turn around and pay rent to the Manitoba Metis Federation. Sounds like a revenue grab to us.

We suspect some of this may have been occasioned by the results of the last election where: only approximately 9% of MMF members even bothered to vote; 4 of 7 regional Vice-Presidents got in by acclamation; and David Chartrand was re-elected by "a landslide" 7%-8% of the popular vote. Maybe just maybe the government looked at that and said, "Why should we continue to pump millions and millions of dollars into the headquarters operation?

As for "Trach" that could well translate into monthly taxpayer cheques that are a lot smaller than they once were.

Clare L. Pieuk