Interim board takes over Bonnyville Rehab

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An interim board of directors has taken control of the Bonnyville Indian-Metis Rehabilitiation Centre following the dismissal of the former directors during a special meeting held in February. The meeting was called for, after an advisory committee circulated a petition for signatures of society members to force the former directors to call the meetings.

The advisory committee was appointed by other society members concerned over representation of the nine Native communities that make up the board of directors.

AT the special meeting a motion was introduced to have the advisory committee act as an interim board of directors. Members of the interim board include August Collins, Alberta Lapatac, Liz Poitras, Allen Jacob, Chairman Roland Dion and Vice-Chairman Andy Collins.

August Collins, who is also the Metis Association of Alberta's Zone II Vice-President, says the main thrust of the interim board is to go over the existing constitution and by-laws and suggest changes that will clearly reflect the centre's mandate.

One area that will be specifically looked at, he said, is the practice of "selling memberships to the society to anybody who's got a dollar to pay for it."

Collins says he believes memberships should be restricted to Native people only. Currently, nine communities make up the membership roll. They are Heart Lake, Fishing Lake, Frog Lake, Saddle Lake, Beaver Lake, Cold Lake, Bonnyville, Kehewin and Goodfish Lake.

Another concern that is closely tied to the issue of membership is the yearly open elections held for board members. Collins believes a better system is for each of the communities involved in the centre to appoint their own representative. He says "if a person is simply elected in an open meeting, he really isn't answerable to anybody."

Collins says the by-laws state, board members must be elected at the centre's annual assembly. In the past, if the elected community representative resigned from the board, the community would simply select another person to fill the vacancy until the next election. But this, says Collins, is actually contrary to the existing by-laws.

He said selling memberships left the electoral system open to abuse. A person running for the board of directors could actively sell memberships prior to the election or could conceivably bring in friends, relatives and other supporters to the election to buy a membership at the door and vote solely to influence the vote count.

Collins says the centre is a non-political service agency but the present set-up leads to a lot of political jockeying for position by private interest groups each year.

Collins says he is confident the changes in the constitution and by-laws will better reflect the needs of the communities and their people rather than profit individuals looking for prestigious titles but no commitment.