During a recent All Candidates Meeting hosted by the Barrie South Simcoe Metis Council in Alcona, citizens were invited to listen to region 7 regional councillor candidates along with PCMNO Vice Chair candidates speak on why they’re running and how they would best represent their consituents if elected on the Provisional Council of the Metis Nation of Ontario. Candidates also answered questions put forth by the Barrie Council about how their values align with the community, whether they support giving both the Women’s Council and 2Spirit council a seat at the PCMNO, if they support harvesting mobility and how they would allocate funding to both the different regions and councils within those regions.

Citizens in attendance were also invited to ask candidates questions. Themes from citizens included questions on how candidates would improve communication and transparency within the region. Another issue raised was the recent changes to the Barrie boundary that saw some Barrie citizens moved to the Georgian Bay Metis Council. A formerly democratically elected Barrie Councilor raised concerns after she was removed from her elected council position due to the shift from one council to the other.

President of the Metis Nation of Ontario, Margaret Froh was in attendance at the meeting as she is a region 7 citizen. She encouraged citizens to vote during this PCMNO election and reminded everyone that a lot of issues regarding funding within the MNO can be solved with self government. The MNO is currently restricted by the federal government on how to allocate funds they receive.

The PCMNO election runs until May 6. Any citizen of the Metis Nation of Ontario above the age of 16 is eligible to vote.