Paul Bickford
Northern News Services

Fort Smith (Sep 26/05) - The long-delayed annual assembly of the Northwest Territory Metis Nation has finally been given a date: Oct. 19-21.

The assembly, which had originally been set for June 23-26 in Fort Smith, was postponed because of a lack of territorial and federal funding.

However, NWT Metis President Rob Tordiff said discussions have been held with the GNWT and the federal government, and commitments for financial support have been obtained. The details still need to be worked out.

He said funding was delayed because the federal and territorial governments have added tighter restrictions, making it more difficult for the Metis Nation to obtain money.

"We've been really working to have the assembly," Tordiff said.

Each year, about 100 delegates from Fort Smith, Hay River, Fort Resolution and Yellowknife attend the gathering.

The average cost of an assembly is about $100,000. Normally, about $20,000 of that would come from the GNWT and an equal amount from the federal government.

"There are a lot of critical issues out there for us to talk about," Tordiff said.

He cited economic development, student financial assistance, the federal government's Aboriginal Blueprint on Health and the Metis Nation's ongoing negotiations with the federal and territorial governments for self-government, land and resources as examples.

While money has been found for this year's assembly, Tordiff said the issue of government funding for Metis is a much deeper problem.

"It really comes down to the inequities of how they handle Metis issues and First Nations issues," he said, describing it as an ongoing discriminatory process.

Tordiff said there are many federal programs for First Nations, but far fewer for Metis.

Without a long-term solution to the overall funding issue, he predicts they will have more problems holding the assembly in the future.