"Manitoba Metis Federation soon to represent nobody?"

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post, "MMF Home Office soon to be on financial life support?"

Maybe Darcey (Jerrome) knows what he is talking about when he wrote:

"If you are one of those 500 employees that David Chartrand and Coompany likes to brag about I'd be a little bit worried today."

In his article (http://metisonline.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22:manitoba-metis-federation-to-soon-represent-nobody&catid=18:blog&Itemid=9)

Manitoba Metis Federation to soon represent nobody.

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Dear Anonymous:

Thank you for writing. You may indeed be correct. If as reported on www.derrylsanderson.blogspot.com MMF President David Chartrand was quoted recently on NCI Radio's Metis Hour Times Two as saying government funders appear ready to cancel the 15% management fee the Home Office charges the Regions before transferring taxpayer dollars, this will be a major financial blow.

The report went on to say Mr. Chartrand estimated that amount to be $7 million annually.

The Manitoba Metis Federation affiliates are not as "arms-length" as Team Trachtenberg-Chartrand would have you believe. During the morning of January 13, 2000 David Chartrand and Donald Roulette arrived uninvited and unannounced for a Board of Directors meeting of the Louis Riel Capital Corporation. There were no compelling business reasons for LRCC to move from its current Burrows Avenue location to the recently acquired headquarters building at 150 Henry Avenue.

Long story short, Mr. Chartrand announced the moving trucks would be arriving at 1:00 that afternoon, staff should begin packing immediately then turned and walked out. At the time then MMF Vice-Presidents Muriel Parker (The Pas), Elbert Chartrand (Dauphin) and Leah LaPlante (Brandon) sat on the Board.

The following are a couple excerpts from a review of the situation completed by Consulting And Audit Canada in late March of 2000 obtained through Access To Information legislation:

(1) "The January 13, 2000 Board meeting (deemed to be a special meeting of the Board) does not appear to have been a proper meeting in that the procedure for calling such a meeting as contained in the LRCC's By-Laws was not followed." (page 5)

Note: This meeting was arranged by the Louis Riel Capital Corporation's Board of Directors.

(2) "The February 21, 2000 Board meeting does not appear to have followed proper procedures and the decisions to appoint certain individuals as Directors and elect Officers were not made in accordance with the By-Laws." (page 5)

Note: This meeting was arragned by the Louis Riel Capital Corporation's Board of Directors.

(3) "LRCC's landlord is the MMF. This is the case for both the previous location on Burrows and the present location on Henry. This is a conflict of interest and is subject to Subsection 2.4 of Appendix "A" to the Contribution Agreement (i.e. between the Louis Riel Capital Corporation and Aboriginal Business Canada). From the evidence provided during the review LRCC did not adhere to the conditions of Subsection 2.4 i.e. no competitive bids were obtained and the two MMF Directors did not absent themselves from the decision." (page 9)

Note: At the time "arms-length" MMF affiliate Pemmican Publications was located a few doors from LRCC in the same commercial complex. It too had an eerily similar experience.

What government funders seem to be saying is who needs a fat, bloated Home Office? Negotiate the agreements directly with the leadership of the Regional Offices bypassing 150 Henry Avenue and there'll be $7 million dollars more each year to distribute for programs rather than going for unnecessary overhead.

Clare L. Pieuk