The President of the Metis Nation of Saskatchewan is disputing allegations his government has not been accountable to the membership about its finances.
Robert Doucette says every audit from the last five years is on the MNS website.
He also says members were recently given updated financial statements:
“At the State of the Nation meeting we gave all of our citizens a copy of our updated financial statements.”
He also notes his group continues to get contribution agreements from both the provincial and federal governments.
He adds some allegations have been made that he’s trying to amend the constitution.
Doucette says his signature isn’t on any amendment, rather they’ve come from other members of the Metis community.
He acknowledges it is taking a long time to get membership cards for everyone but he says there are six thousand people in the cue.
He believes the MNS has one of the strongest registries in Canada.
He also says any decisions about finances, like whether to give local offices money so they can register their own citizens, will be made democratically:
“Well you know, again, we’re having our Metis Nation Legislative Assembly and that question keeps coming up about every year about regions actually having access to those resources but in fact Metis citizens – when they come in and register do have access to that. You know we provide staff that go out in the communities and work to register our people.”
Meantime Doucette says there is a rumour going around that people who don’t get registered won’t be able to vote in the next election.
He says that’s completely false.