Next month’s Metis Nation – Saskatchewan election has officially been suspended.
MN-S president Robert Doucette says the matter is tied to this week’s decision in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench.
A judge refused a motion to declare that the election could go ahead, noting no respondents had been named in the application, and that quorum hadn’t been met at the meeting where the election date was set.
Doucette says a meeting of the Provincial Metis Council has been scheduled for May 9th, at which time a date will be set for a Metis Nation Legislative Assembly.
He explains they need at least 11 council members, out of a total of 18, to show up for the meeting for quorum to be reached.
That would effectively restart the election process.
Doucette says government representatives have told him they will discuss the issue of funding the election once those things have happened:
“They’ve told me that, look, we need to resolve our internal issues, and that potentially once that happens, they’re going to do an analysis of everything that’s going on. And once we get to a good place where we should be — that the PMC meets and the MNLA meets and we decide things collectively in a good way — they’re going to come to the table and talk to us about that. So that’s a good thing.”
A new chief electoral officer would also have to be hired.
Doucette says he is not sure if the previous person in that post, Annette Yarmovich, will re-apply for the position.
He also won’t speculate what would happen if an election hasn’t happened by the time his five-year term runs out at the end of June:
“I think it’s incumbent upon the delegates at the Metis Nation Legislative Assembly to decide how we’re going to move forward on that basis. I can’t make comment on that, because I’m sure the Metis Nation Legislative (Assembly) will decide where it goes from there — because we haven’t found ourselves in this position before.”