(April 26, 2025) Métis Nation British Columbia (MNBC) claims to be a government but their failure to follow even the most basic elements of good governance such as accountability and transparency make them look more like a poorly run non-profit society.
Here are five examples of why MNBC fails the test of being a real government:
1. Board minutes – Where are they? Minutes of the Board of Director meetings have not been posted in 3 months. The last minutes posted were for the January Board meeting. Where are the minutes for February and March? Is there something in the minutes that they don’t want to share with MNBC Citizens? Or maybe they don’t have enough employees to post them in a timely fashion. Remember they only have between 300 and 400 employees.
2. Treasurer’s Report – Where is it? This report was required by their own legislation to be presented by the Treasurer to the Métis Nation Governing Assembly at the beginning of March. Delegates were told the report was not able to be finalized in time, and there was no apology for the missing report from the Treasurer Patrick Harriott, who by the way gets paid extra money for his role. Did he think it was not important enough to comply with the legislation? In a real government, he would have been fired for failing to present the report.
3. Annual Operating Budget – Where is it? Even volunteer-driven non-profit societies develop, approve, and often post annual operating budgets, but MNBC hasn’t posted an annual operating budget in years. Why not? What don’t they want the citizens to know? Maybe it would show too much information about the tens of millions of dollars they are spending on staff salaries, consultants, lawyers and Board expenses. Real governments have to present and post annual operating budgets because they have to follow the basic requirements of accountability and transparency.
4. Salary Grid for Employees – Where is the latest version? The last version was approved by the Board of Directors in 2023, and provided for a range of salaries depending on what position the staff member filled. For example, the CEO’s salary range back then was $225,000 to $300,000 per year, while other senior members of management were in the range of $145,000 to $225,000 per year. It is very likely that those salary ranges and the salary ranges for the other 300+ employees have all increased. So why not tell MNBC Citizens what those ranges are and which employees make more than $100,000? Real governments publish their salary grids on an annual basis and most publish employee salaries over $100,000.
5. Leased vehicle for the President – How much is that costing? We don’t know because MNBC hasn’t shared that information with the citizens. On January 21st of this year, the Board agreed (subject to a financial review by the Executive Committee which the President chairs) to lease a vehicle for the President for the next four years. That’s not cheap. We don’t know for sure what kind of vehicle would be leased for the President, but let’s use as an example the leasing of a 2025 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Crew Cab truck. An online review of leasing deals for a pick-up like that is about $10,000 to $12,000 a year, plus taxes and insurance. That will easily increase the cost to at least $13,000 to $15,000 a year, plus the annual cost of fuel would likely take it up to $18,000 to $20,000 a year. If he drives it more than 16,000 km’s per year, (which is likely) the leasing cost will rise even more. This is not cheap. And remember most members of the Board voted to give themselves a raise as of April 1st. For the President, his annual remuneration is now at least $180,000 which is the same amount as a Provincial Government Cabinet Minister. Pretty big chunk of change for being President of a non-profit society.
Former MNBC President Clara Morin DalCol asks, “Why are the community Presidents not raising these issues with the MNBC Board? Community presidents are supposed to represent the interests of their community citizens but no one is demanding accountability and transparency. Just wait until the money stops flowing.”
Ms. Morin DalCol, the President of Red River Métis British Columbia says, “When it comes to an organization to properly address the needs of Métis people in British Columbia, it really is time for a change. Red River Métis British Columbia is a real grass-roots organization for true Métis. Any true Métis residing in British Columbia who meets our criteria, including the national definition of Métis can apply to join as a member of our Métis organization which is based right here in British Columbia. You can apply to join us by clicking on https://www.presidentclara.com/get-involved
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