Fake status cards raise concerns
Kahnawake cracking down on attempts to buy cars tax-free
Kahnawake peacekeeper Jennifer Stacey was exiting Kahnawake’s police station on May 12 when she noticed a truck hauling a brand new Chrysler Pacifica.
The truck driver told her he was delivering the $35,000 vehicle, which had been sold by a dealer in Brossard, to a customer with a card issued by the Communauté Mikinak, a self-proclaimed native community in Beauharnois not recognized as a First Nations territory by the Canadian government.
Since status aboriginals do not have to pay taxes when they buy cars, the customer was attempting to claim a tax exemption that would amount to $5,250 on a $35,000 car.
But Stacey informed the driver that Mikinak cards do not give tax exemption rights, ordered the manager to void the sale and reissue an invoice including tax or be charged with fraud.
It was the sixth case this year of attempted vehicle purchases using cards not recognized by Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada.
It’s an issue that is a growing nuisance for Kahnawake’s peacekeepers, and one that has caused considerable friction between Kahnawake’s members and the Mikinak.
The Mikinak have been fighting to be recognized as an indigenous people for the past year.
Their self-described chief, Lise Brisebois, says membership is open to those who can provide genealogical evidence of at least one aboriginal ancestor at some point in the past.
With that proof and a payment of $80, many have been issued “Mikinak cards” that closely resemble the official status cards recognized by INAC.
That similarity angers many community members in Kahnawake, 20 kilometres away from Beauharnois.
“It’s a pain in the butt because all these salespeople are selling this stuff, and then it’s getting delivered here and no one is consulting us first,” said chief peacekeeper Dwayne Zacharie.
Mikinak cards are not the only ones being used.
This year, the peacekeepers reported two attempted vehicle purchases using Mikinak cards, three purchases using cards issued by the Confederation of Aboriginal People, and one by the Native Alliance of Quebec. None of the three organizations are recognized by INAC.
“While these cards convey membership to an organization, they do not confer Indian status, nor do they confer rights and benefits linked explicitly to Indian status,” said INAC spokesperson Valérie Haché.
Confederation of Aboriginal People of Canada and the Communauté Mikinak cards are similar to INAC’s Secure Certificate of Indian Status cards, she said. INAC has asked both groups to stop producing and distributing the cards.
Mikinak leader Lise Brisebois said she tells Mikinak members to pay tax on vehicles and not to have them delivered to the Mohawk reserve at Kahnawake or any other native community.
“At every meeting I say when you buy a vehicle, pay the tax on the auto because we’re not on a reserve,” she said.
So far in 2017, there have been six cases recorded by the peacekeepers, the same number as for all of 2016.
Those using the non-recognized cards typically don’t patronize dealers in Châteauguay, St-Constant or other communities surrounding Kahnawake, because those dealerships know the rules for status exemption, Zacharie said.
Non-native people are going to dealerships farther from Kahnawake and having cars delivered to the reserve, he said.
Peacekeeper reports this year say dealers in Brossard, Montreal, Granby, St-Jérôme, and Delson have sold tax-exempt vehicles to people having non-valid status cards.
Fortier Auto in Montreal sold a Dodge Journey to a customer with a Native Alliance card April 27. Sales manager Marc Durocher says he was forced to void and resell a vehicle with tax.
“We try to check as much as we can, but most of the time we have to deliver the truck to the police department where they check if everything is OK,” he said.
The rules for tax exemption are relatively simple. Those with an INAC-issued “Secure Certificate of Indian Status” card can purchase a vehicle at a dealership tax-free so long as it’s delivered to a reserve.
Zacharie suggested altering the law so deliveries would have to be dropped off at an official community organization.
“As we speak, there could be a dozen cars delivered all over Kahnawake that we don’t know about or see, and people don’t necessarily report it to us,” he said. “It should have to be delivered here to our police station or our council office where somebody who knows the card can actually say good or bad.”
The peacekeeper reports all end the same way: the car is seized, the dealership is contacted and asked to void the sale and reissue another invoice including tax.
Haché said INAC is monitoring the situation closely.
“INAC is currently reviewing allegations that non-INAC membership cards may have been used to improperly obtain benefits intended for registered Indians,” she said. “Any information found or received, through this review or otherwise, that is indicative of fraud or other illegal activity will be turned over to policing authorities.”
Many in Kahnawake fear that increasing attempts to use tax exemption fraudulently might affect legitimate vehicle purchases for indigenous people.
“It’s incumbent on the dealerships as well as the governments to educate the people and say this is what you can and cannot do,” Zacharie said. “Because we still have problems when we have our real band cards and go some place and they say, ‘No, no no. We don’t take that anymore.’”