MNO Grand River Métis Council Governance and Finance Training
On March 25-26, 2017, The Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) Grand River Métis Council (GRMC) participated in a Governance and Finance Training session in Guelph. Training was facilitated by MNO Community Relations Coordinators Glen Lipinski and Beth Boros. The two-day training session focused on policies, procedures, aspects of budgeting and general reporting.
The MNO benefits immensely from the dedicated volunteers who are members of its chartered community councils. These hard-working individuals spend hundreds of hours building and strengthening their Métis communities.
Through funding provided by Ontario’s New Relationship Fund, the MNO has been able to develop and deliver a Governance and Finance Course that helps community councils perform their important work.
Since the MNO has offered this training, the following community councils have participated: the MNO Moon River, Sunset Country, Kenora, Northwest, Windsor, Clear Waters, High Land Waters, North Bay, Temiskaming, Northern Lights, Thunder Bay, Atikokan and Area, Niagara Region, Peterborough and District Wapiti, Grand River, Credit River, Toronto and York Region, Sudbury, Ottawa Region, North Channel and Georgian Bay Métis Councils.
The course is a two-day seminar held locally that explains the role of community councils as the MNO’s local governments, whose structure and purpose is coordinated through each council’s charter agreement with the MNO. The course covers everything from how to run effective meetings and engage citizens in council activities to budgeting and the various financial practices, regulations and legislation that community councils follow.
The MNO will be updating these training programs in the coming months based on feedback from community councils.