Over to you, Mr. Minister

Two months ago, a Deloitte audit revealed that 81 per cent of 400 transactions it reviewed, which were made by Chief Theresa Spence’s Attawapiskat band, lacked proper supporting documentation, while more than 60 per cent didn’t even list what was paid for.

In the wake of Spence’s liquid diet, begun in December in protest over what she claimed was a lack adaisical government attitude toward concerns on her reserve, public attention has been brought sharply to focus on accountability for the billions of taxpayer dollars channelled to reserves by the federal Aboriginal Affairs department.

Spence’s annual salary and travel expenses top $71,000, while ostensibly, her band has been neglected financially. Now comes word that the chief of a Saskatchewan reserve consisting of just 443 people is raking in a salary which tops that of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who earned $317,000 before taxes in 2011.

Thursday, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation awarded a much-deserved Teddy, their award for fiscal waste, to Roger Redman, chief of the Standing Buffalo First Nation. Not only does Redman’s after-tax net income top Harper’s, his band councillors all earn more individually than Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall.

Meanwhile, Redman’s reserve, which is located eight kilometres northwest of Fort Qu’Appelle, can barely fund social services due to a chronic cash shortage.

The public can hardly be blamed for demanding to know just what is going on here. These sorts of stories, of chiefs taking home incredibly rich pay while their bands lack basic amenities, have been around for decades. If anything, Spence’s protest and the Idle No More movement have only served to bring the issue back into the spotlight.

Newly appointed Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt not only must address situations like Standing Buffalo’s, he must be visibly seen to be injecting stringent accountability measures into the system. An increasingly restive and irate taxpaying public will settle for no less.