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 Portfolios and Ministries
The governance structure of the Métis Nation – Saskatchewan is designed to reflecting existing relationships and a need for future relationships as the voice of the Metis within the province of Saskatchewan. A number of portfolios and/or ministries are set up to accommodate discussions with provincial and federal government departments. Housing, justice, and employment and training are examples. As well as the departments of government, the Métis Nation – Saskatchewan has designed portfolios to meet the basic needs of Métis governance and to address the issues which remain outstanding and specific to the Nation.
 
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The Community Relations portfolio is an example of this. As the Métis Nation grows and develops and undertakes greater responsibility for addressing the issues of the people there is a recognition in the governance structure that our relationships within communities and between communities is essential to our future. In addition to portfolios and mandates, there are specific committees appointed to address specific initiatives. An example of this is the Batoche Committee and this year a specific committee was set up to address and develop culture, heritage and language. There are unfortunately a number of areas that need attention but there remains a shortage of human resource capacity to move these items forward despite the desire of the leadership and the community members to do so. 
As set out in the Constitution of the Métis Nation – Saskatchewan, the responsibility of setting out the portfolios and ministries resides with the President of the Métis Nation Legislative Assembly. All members of the MNLA, including Local Presidents, Regional Representatives, Métis Women and Métis youth representatives and the Executive are eligible for consideration for appointment to these positions. However, the appointments to portfolios and ministries typically is reserved for members of the Provincial Metis Council due primarily to limited budgets to carry out their responsibilities. Typically each portfolio is assigned a Minister and an Associate Minister. In some portfolios, such as lntergovernmental Affairs, there are multiple associate ministers each with a specific assigned duty. It is also the general practice that the executive Members of the MNLA are assigned governance-type responsibilities rather than those portfolios which deal with programs service delivery. 
Finally, as an overview, some ministries have within them developed affiliates. For example, within the education ministry, the minister is responsible for all matters of the Gabriel Dumont Institute and its various subsidiary programming. The minister of economic development is responsible for both SaskNative Economic Development Corporation and the Clarence Campeau Development fund. These ministries are however, greater than the affiliates and may need to reach out into areas for which the affiliates as they currently exist are not mandated. As well, there are ministries without infrastructure or affiliates such as Rural and Urban Affairs.