MNO President Gary Lipinski (left) with the Honourable Dr. Eric Hoskins (right),
Minister of Children and Youth Services
On April 10, 2012, the Métis Nation of Ontario provided Dr. Eric Hoskins, Ontario Minister of Children and Youth Services with a report entitled Métis Nation of Ontario Recommendations Concerning Métis-specific Child and Family Services.
This report was written in response to a resolution at the Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) Annual General Assembly (AGA) that expressed concern that Métis were not consulted on, or included in a Government of Ontario report entitled: Children First: Report on the Status of Aboriginal Child Welfare in Ontario. The resolution instructed the MNO leadership to meet with the Minister of Children and Youth Services and to prepare a Métis-specific report because the Children First report was entirely about First Nations.
Click here to view the complete resolution
The meeting with the Minister of Children and Youth Services took place on March 21 2012 and at the meeting Minister Hoskins agreed to read the MNO report in tandem with the Children First report in order to insure the Métis perspective was considered. This commitment to consider the MNO report is very much in the spirit of the MNO-Ontario Framework Agreement that President Lipinski signed in 2008, which provided that the MNO and Ontario will cooperate to improve the well-being of Métis children, families and communities.
Woven throughout the MNO report and its 12 recommendations is the recognition of Métis differences from Frist Nations, Inuit and non-Aboriginal Ontarians. Métis inclusion means Métis-specific approaches and solutions, which can only be implemented through concerted action arising from meaningful engagement and consultation with the Métis Nation of Ontario.