BCMF Letter for Proposals to Provincial and Federal Government

The following letter was sent today to the Honourable Mary Polak, Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation for the Province of British Columbia and the Honourable John Duncan, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada for the Government of Canada…

Dear Minister Polak and Minister Duncan,

The British Columbia Métis Federation (BCMF) is pleased to present the attached proposals for your respective Ministries as follow up to the correspondence sent by the BCMF dated June 13th, June 27th, June 30th and July 26th, 2011 respectively.

BCMF has continued its efforts to inform the provincial and federal governments regarding the major challenges Métis people in British Columbia face regarding sustainable program delivery and accountable Métis governance representation as a result of the mismanagement of the Métis Nation British Columbia (MNBC). Over the past two years, the BCMF has continued its efforts which have been well documented and supported by concrete facts presented in numerous previous correspondences, including the above aforementioned letters.

To that end BCMF letters have been drafted to signal an opportunity for governments to be a part of a new beginning that can support Métis priorities through the BCMF, based on provincial and federal government programs available to the Métis people. For this reason BCMF volunteers have completed work and we are pleased to present the following attachments:

  1. BCMF Tripartite Self Government Negotiations Funding Proposal 2011-2012; 
  2. BCMF Métis Rights Management REGISTRY Funding Proposal 2011-2012; 
  3. BCMF Métis Rights Management RESEARCH Funding Proposal 2011-2012 
  4. BCMF Métis and Non Status Capacity Funding Proposal 2011-2012; and 
  5. BCMF Aboriginal Policy Research Network Funding Proposal 2011-2012. 

The BCMF board members are proud of the personal sacrifices our team of volunteers has made to rebuild proper Métis representation for our people in BC. It is our hope that governments recognize the considerable effort our team has made to ensure Métis culture and accountable self governance can be truly achieved for all Métis people in British Columbia. The fact is the MNBC only represents approximately 6500 of the 60,000 self identified Métis people in this province and it is time to address proper representation for all. BCMF believes the work planning we have created to address governance, membership, community consultation, and research provide a more comprehensive legitimate plan to move forward.

We look forward to your timely responses and we trust your officials will be prepared to meet in the near future to discuss the proposals and consider how governments will invest. We stress that the proposals clearly demonstrate BCMF deliverables with activities to begin in the fall and as such require a timely response.

In closing, BCMF is opening our official new head office located at #300 – 3665 Kingsway, Vancouver, BC this week. We will be holding an official opening and hope each of you will be able to attend. I will be sure to send an invitation in the near future once a date is finalized by the board members.

BCMF looks forward to rebuilding Métis culture, community support, and self governance in British Columbia.

Please feel to contact me should you have any further questions. I can be reached at the BCMF head office number 1-604-638-7220 or by email directly @ k.henry@bcmetis.com.

Thank you,

Keith Henry

President

British Columbia Métis Federation

cc
BCMF Board of Directors
BCMF Members
Mary Lou Kenney, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, Government of Canada
Rod Cunningham, Service Canada
Arlene Paton, Assistant Deputy Minister, Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation

Downloads:

[ilink url=”/wp-content/uploads/BCMF-Letter-for-Proposals-to-Provincial-and-Federal-Government-Wednesday-August-3rd-2011.pdf” style=”download”]Click here to download the letter in PDF format.[/ilink]

 

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