Fewer First Nations complying with fiscal reporting law.
UNCLEAR WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR SLIDE
While most First Nations continue to comply with Stephen Harper’s controversial financial transparency law, a National Post analysis has found the compliance rate sharply dropped after Justin Trudeau’s government dropped a key enforcement mechanism.
As a result of the Trudeau government’s rule change, some bureaucrats are worried they won’t be able to properly account for and administer the billions of dollars transferred each year to the country’s First Nations.
Moreover, the Post has learned that the drop in the compliance rate to 85 per cent this year from 92 per cent in Harper’s last year may be the fault of the federal government itself which, in some instances at least, may have failed to live up to its obligations under the First Nations Financial Transparency Act (FNFTA).
At the end of 2015, the Liberal government suspended a provision that allowed Ottawa to withhold federal funds for any band that failed to publish audited financial statements and a statement listing how much its chief and band councillors were paid.
Nonetheless, most bands provided those documents to Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada ( INAC), as required under the controversial FNFTA, created by the Harper government in 2013. But INAC says that, as of Dec. 21, 2016, nearly 90 bands have not provided the required financial disclosure statements for the fiscal year ending March 30, 2016.
A complete set of annual audited financial statements from First Nations is used by INAC and other federal departments “to ensure that the funds provided are fully accounted for by the First Nation, ensure that funding is spent on approved activities, ( and to) analyze financial health,” according to a briefing note prepared last year for Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett and obtained by the National Post.
When Bennett lifted the enforcement provision in late 2015, a nervous Health Canada official wrote to an INAC finance official saying, “I’m still concerned as (we) depend on receiving some … audited financial statements from INAC.”
The INAC finance official, in reply, conceded that it would “indirectly affect” Health Canada’s supply of accurate and timely financial information about First Nations.
The National Post has also learned that even though INAC is no longer publicly listing First Nations that are not compliant with the FNFTA, there was an internal push from senior bureaucrats within INAC in the wake of Bennett’s announcement to maintain an inter- nal list of FNFTA non- compliant bands for circulation to departmental officials in charge of various funding programs.
INAC officials did not respond to a written request provided early Tuesday morning for the list of FNFTA non-compliant bands.
The National Post reviewed all the filings published online by INAC for the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2016, and found that, of the approximately 580 First Nations required to file financial documents, 496 had done so as of Jan. 2, 2017. That represents a compliance rate of about 85 per cent.
By comparison, for the previous fiscal year, when the enforcement provision was in effect, 534 bands filed their papers for a 92- percent compliance rate. And in fiscal 2014, the compliance rate was 90 per cent.
It is unclear, though, who is at fault for the increased rate of non-compliance.
The FNFTA puts an obligation on both a First Nation and on the federal government to make financial information available.
Under the legislation, the First Nation has 120 days from the end of its fiscal year to get its audited statements to INAC, which is required to publish those documents on its website as soon as they are received.
The Post contacted several band council administrations this week whose documents were not posted on INAC website and found three cases in which the First Nation said they had provided the required information in the fall.
“I ’m quite sure we’ve handed in the paperwork we were supposed to,” said Kevin Littlelight, a spokesperson for Tsuu T’ina First Nation, southeast of Calgary.
“I’m not aware of any kind of truancy on our part.”
TsuuT’ i na, which has about 2,200 registered members and posted about $ 126 million in revenue in fiscal 2015, complied with FNFTA in 2015 and 2014.
Weenusk First Nation Chief Edmund Hunter and Fort Albany First Nation Chief Andrew Solomon — both reached by phone this week on their northern Ontario reserves — said they, too, had filed the required FNFTA documents last fall.
None of the required documents, however, from Tsuu T’ina , Weenusk, and Fort Albany are posted at INAC’s website nor are they posted at the websites of the individual First Nations, as required by the FNFTA.
Bennett promised more than a year ago to implement new accountability and transparency mechanisms for the billions of federal and provincial dollars transferred each year to the country’s First Nations governments but she has yet to provide any details on that initiative.
I’M QUITE SURE WE’VE HANDED IN THE PAPERWORK.