“It’s the government that needs to recognize the Métis and we need to be treated equally,” she said. “We want to ensure that our Métis peoples are heard.”
B.C.’s Métis argue they have been left out of the reconciliation process and are underfunded in areas such as health care and education compared to First Nations.
Métis Nation British Columbia, which has 22,000 members and says it speaks for the province’s 90,000 Métis, sent a letter on Thursday to the leaders of the three major political parties in B.C., demanding the next government start recognizing Métis as a distinct people and enter into government-to-government talks about policy and programs that affect them.
Time and time again we witness MNBC saying public statements that they represent 90,000 Métis people. It is not true and takes away from their messages. This is a Census Canada figure and is not their actual membership.
We agree as the BC Métis Federation that there in a sad inequity of program support for all Métis. But as representative organizations of some of the Métis people in BC we all need to make true public statements.
The MNBC discriminates against their programs referenced within this article. The irony of this article is truly shocking to our leaders.
Of course they purport to represent 90,000, they think it will give them more program funds although they only allow their card carrying members (referred to as “citizens”) to access. We believe there is legitimately only about 10-15 thousand MNBC card carrying members, far below 90,000., or the 22,000 they state in their letter.
