(February 14, 2023) The President of Métis Nation British Columbia (MNBC) missed most of the recent Ottawa meetings with various federal politicians that were organized by MNBC. Lissa Smith shows up in only one picture with a federal cabinet minister and the picture appears to be more of a photo-op than an actual meeting. The three other members of the MNBC Executive Committee who were in Ottawa for the meetings are featured in the other pictures with federal politicians, several of which are simply photo-ops standing in hallways, but the President is nowhere to be seen.
The $150,000 annual salaried President shows up in only one other picture of the recent meetings in Ottawa and that was with representatives of the Métis Nation of Ontario. In the picture which MNBC billed as “Great meeting with our fellow Métis government, (MNO) to discuss shared priorities and collaboration,” Smith, along with members of the MNBC Executive Committee and some MNBC staff pose for a picture with the two representatives of MNO. Given that MNO has a Provisional Council of 19 members, and only two members of the Council are in the picture, the description of the meeting used by MNBC that it was a “great meeting with our fellow Métis government…” may be a little bit of an overstatement.
The MNBC President also failed to attend a meeting in Ottawa with federal politicians this past December, and also was not in attendance at the Métis National Council General Assembly meeting in Vancouver in October.
Some of the most recent meetings in Ottawa that were arranged for the three other members of the MNBC Executive Committee were not well-attended. One glaring example is the meeting with the “Liberal Party Pacific Caucus”. The caucus is comprised of all 15 Liberal Party MP’s from British Columbia but only 4 showed up. The 3 MNBC Board members were also not successful in meeting with the federal Minister of Indigenous Services Canada, nor with the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, and appear in just a single picture with the federal Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations.
One can only ask, if during the meetings with federal politicians as they were advocating for self-government, did the MNBC reps happen to mention that they raised their own salaries by 36% last October? Probably not, given that raising their own salaries by that huge an amount is not seen as demonstrating very responsible governance.
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For further information:
Contact Clara Morin Dal Col
BC Métis Leader
Email: cmdalcol@gmail.com
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