(Vancouver, BC) The BC Métis Federation (BCMF) Board of Directors held a recent board meeting last evening and officially approved the opening of the new BCMF headquarters in Vancouver at its Friday night meeting. The new address is suite #300=3665 Kingsway and it will be fully operational by next week with reception, voice mail, telephones and a secure membership office for BCMF Membership Coordinator Sherry Parisien.

The leasing of BCMF office space was one of several very significant motions made by the BCMF Board of Directors during Friday evening’s long session. The other notable motion was the release on Tuesday August 2nd 2011 of BCMF letters of submission 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 requesting funding for BCMF infrastructure and capacity building.

Government funding for BCMF would be a wise and viable political solution to resolve the inevitable voter backlash against any government responsible for allowing reckless financial mismanagement of taxpayer funding by MNBC. MNBC financial documents point clearly to an unsustainable organizational debt and massive overspending on administration. BCMF continues to discuss the situation with various media following the situation closely and it is clearly gaining interest as this story sheds more light on the realities facing MNBC.

BCMF board members also welcomed newly appointed board members Tim St. Denis and Lyle Letendre, who each are well known in the Métis community. Tim is a professional who has been a practicing Chiropractic Doctor for the past 33 years, currently practicing in Ladner, BC. Tim has served as a Director on both the BC Chiropractic Association and the BC College of Chiropractic. Tim has also served on all Executive levels of the Canadian Chiropractic Association including Treasurer, President and Chairman of the Board. Tim has proud Métis roots come from Lebret, Saskatchewan. Tim has spent many years to promote his Métis heritage and is now ready to work in the trenches to support the BCMF.

Lyle Letendre has been a volunteer president of the Kelly Lake Métis Settlement Society for over 20 years. Lyle is proud that the Métis people of Kelly Lake still live a traditional Métis lifestyle such as speaking and understanding the language, hunting, trapping, and gathering using moose hide for many of their Métis art works. Lyle is honoured to sit on the BCMF board where he feels that he can see Métis people moving forward as recognized and contributing Métis people of the province of BC and Canada.

BCMF Founding President Keith Henry spoke with pride of the accelerated pace that sees the BCMF fully prepared to represent Métis people at the provincial and federal levels; “BCMF is the future for our people in BC and possibly Canada. BCMF is debt free and represents the foundation for integrity and respectful negotiations with our people and governments to address Métis rights and provide much needed services for Métis people in critical areas like education, health, employment for youth, women and particularly elders in the communities where they live. BCMF is a marked departure from the old MNBC method of free and irresponsible spending while denying Métis people basic services or for that matter communication and information on the business of their Nation.”

BCMF President Henry added; “The new BCMF office will be ready in a few weeks and we will invite the Métis public and partners to come and participate in our official BCMF office opening. Our leadership has once again shown our commitment to our people, we are opening an office in Vancouver using our own resources initially to support the new beginning. We did not wait for government financial support, this office is extremely cost effective and demonstrates how fiscally responsible decisions should be made while providing a proud corporate appearance.”

BCMF President Henry concluded; “The decision by the board to appoint Tim St. Denis and Lyle Letendre add additional strong leadership. Our Board has undertaken to appoint representatives to ensure the BCMF gets off to a strong start. Lyle brings forward strong cultural awareness while Tim brings years of health experience as well as community involvement. I am proud to serve with these new BCMF board members. The future continues to look so bright!”

-30-

Media Inquiries:

Keith Henry
President
British Columbia Métis Federation
k.henry@bcMétis.com
1-778-388-5013

Images:

[divider_flat]

Downloads:

[ilink url=”/wp-content/uploads/BCMF-Press-Release-July-30th-2011.pdf” style=”download”]Click here to download this press release in PDF format.[/ilink]