President's Corner: June 13, 2026
Posted on: Jun 12, 2026
Last week, I had the honour of welcoming municipal leaders from across Alberta and from every corner of Canada to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Annual Conference, here in Edmonton. It was a powerful moment to stand in front of that room, on behalf of the Otipemisiwak Métis Government and our more than 78,000 Métis Citizens and share the story of this place.
Long before Edmonton became the city we know today, Métis families lived, worked, harvested, traded, and built community along the North Saskatchewan River. As the fur trade slowed, Métis families developed farms on river lots close to Fort Edmonton. Those narrow river lots still echo in Edmonton’s map today, and one of the city’s wards carries the name Métis. We are not new to this place. We are part of its foundation.
The message I carried to that room was this: when municipalities work with Métis governments in a respectful way, the outcomes are stronger for our communities and for everyone who calls them home. Métis Citizens are your neighbours and your constituents. They are business owners, teachers, nurses, tradespeople, public servants, artists, Elders, parents, and young people with big dreams for their future. Building strong communities means building them together.
This year’s conference theme was “Building the future together,” and that theme feels important right now. Canada is being asked to build more homes, stronger infrastructure, and more inclusive and resilient communities. That work cannot be done properly unless Indigenous governments are part of it from the beginning. Métis people helped build this country, its trade routes, its early economies, and the relationships across peoples and places. We are still here, and we are still building.
Walking out of that room, I felt the weight of what is possible when leaders are willing to sit at the same table. The Otipemisiwak Métis Government will continue to seek out those partnerships, in cities, towns, villages, and rural and northern communities across Alberta. The future of this country will be built in those rooms, and our Citizens deserve to be in them.
President Andrea Sandmaier
Otipemisiwak Métis Government