The President of the Manitoba Metis Federation (MMF) is not mincing words when responding to the Premier’s comments on the resignation of nine of the 10 Manitoba Hydro board members.

David Chartrand says Brian Pallister is pulling “the race card” and blaming the Metis people for his failings as a Premier.

The issues stems from all but one of Manitoba Hydro’s board members resigning. Board chairman Sandy Riley says the board members resigned because of concerns with Hydro’s governance and the fact that since they were appointed, they haven’t been able to secure a face-to-face meeting the Pallister.

Pallister, on the other hand, said the board members resigned over his opposition to a $67-million pay out to the MMF, which he characterized as “persuasion money” to dissuade the group from acting on concerns over the Minnesota-Manitoba transmission line.

Chartrand says the $67 million compensation is no different from Hydro offering payment to private landowners or farmers whose land they acquire for Hydro purposes. He also says they reached an agreement that would save taxpayers money by not racking up litigation costs.

The deal would have cost the province just over $1 million per year for 50 years.

“It’s clear that his ego got the best of him.” Chartrand said. “Hydro does a calculation of loss for any landowner and they did the same thing with us. For him to try and blame that as the breaking point is absolutely absurd. It’s tactical. He’s playing a race game.”

“Why isn’t he calling all those other settlements persuasion money? What’s the difference between the two?”

Chartrand also objected to Pallister’s use of “persuasion money”, as it gives off an intentionally negative connotation.

“He’s using that language like it was done in a back room somewhere and it was unethical,” Chartrand said. “Like it was some kind of hush money people in the mafia pay so they can do illegal and unethical stuff.”

“I think if the Conservatives were smart, they’d ask for his resignation.”

In a statement, Pallister says his government’s responsibility would not be fulfilled by allowing tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to be paid out to groups when it has ramifications for future construction projects.

“As a government, we have to provide leadership to our crown corporations,” Pallister said. “Our government did not agree with this course of action. This government has an absolute obligation to stand up for ratepayers and that’s what we’re going to continue to do.”