Building a Métis Civil Service
Building a Métis Civil Service
Métis governments and their affiliates have experienced a steady devolution of programs and services from federal and provincial governments over the past several decades. However, these developments have not been accompanied by a sufficient growth in revenue, funding, human resources or governing capacity. As they assume greater responsibility over the wellbeing of its citizens, Métis Governments face a number of challenges in establishing a well-functioning civil service.
Governance Issues
For a number of legal and financial reasons, Métis Governments have been forced to incorporate as not-for-profit corporations under either federal or provincial legislation. The corporate structure imposed on the Métis presents a barrier for Métis Governments seeking to deliver programs and services to their citizens in an effective and efficient manner-while also keeping with the practices and principles of Métis politics and governance.
Funding
The funding provided to Métis governments for the purposes of program and service delivery is generally subject to a number of conditions set and controlled by federal and provincial governments. These conditions have resulted in a funding relationship that favours state interests over the economic and political development goals of Métis Governments. Under their current financial circumstances, Métis Governments are in a constant state of financial uncertainty, dependent on the generosity of state actors. For this reason, Métis governance have asked for long-term predictable funding and also seek a political and legal framework that allows them to generate their own revenue.
Staff and Recruitment
The financial insecurity of Métis governments makes it difficult to properly recruit and train staff. A study (link to study in Collections) prepared for the Institute on Governance by Métis lawyer and advisor Jason Madden and his colleagues John Graham and Jake Wilson on Métis governance in the twenty-first century identified a number of obstacles to building a strong and productive Métis civil service, including the following:
- inability to offer competitive compensation packages to qualified candidates (i.e. the federal and provincial governments being able to offer significantly more money in salaries, a lack of pension plans, a lack of defined grids for salary reviews, and so forth);
- inability to offer long term employment contracts to qualified candidates due to the project-based nature of funding received from other governments;
- lack of effective and ongoing training for staff in order to upgrade skills throughout their career;
- lack of job security due to the political nature of these organizations where there may be elections every 3-4 years and political factions on provincial boards; and
- A lack of clearly defined organizational structures, job descriptions, expectations and career planning within the organizations.
Métis Governments have also expressed a need to train and develop a Métis workforce, especially in the areas of program and policy design, accounting, program evaluation, and service delivery.