RCMP ends investigation of Métis National Council, but federal audit continues
The federal Crown-Indigenous Relations department has decided not to file a criminal complaint following an ongoing compliance audit of the Métis National Council, ending an RCMP investigation into the file, CBC News has learned.
RCMP investigators were waiting on the results of the audit before deciding their next steps in an investigation of the Métis National Council (MNC) that was triggered by complaints by three former employees of the organization.
An RCMP investigator with the sensitive and international investigations unit emailed the former employees on Dec. 16 indicating that the probe was now closed because the federal department would not be filing a criminal complaint in the matter, according to a copy of the email obtained by CBC News.
The compliance audit was launched after department officials met with investigators from the RCMP’s sensitive and international investigations unit, according to email correspondence between former MNC employees and RCMP investigators previously obtained by CBC News.
The RCMP investigators approached the department after interviewing three former employees of the MNC.
Crown-Indigenous Relations retained Ernst & Young on July 11, 2018 to conduct a financial review of its contribution agreement with the MNC.
Contribution agreements govern how funds from the department to the organization should be spent.
The MNC receives millions of dollars annually from the federal government for its operations.
A Dec. 24, 2018 letter sent to the MNC by Jean-Marc Lafrenière, director of Crown-Indigenous Relations’s assessment and investigation services branch, which was provided to CBC News by the MNC, said the department had received allegations over the “procurement of professional services and the reimbursement of expenditures which may have resulted in departmental funding being used for ineligible expenditures.”.
CBC News contacted the RCMP’s National Division requesting comment on the end of the investigation. The RCMP sent a statement to CBC News saying that it does not “confirm or deny” the existence of investigations.
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett’s office said in an emailed statement that the “financial review at MNC is still ongoing” and that the department would not provide any further information.
The MNC did not respond to a request for comment.
David Chartrand, who is the spokesperson for MNC, previously told CBC News the allegations by the three former employees were false and that the organization has nothing to hide.