Government set to impose sanctions on First Nations over disclosure
Penalties are about to be imposed on First Nations that failed to meet Wednesday’s deadline under a federal law requiring them to make public band financial statements and the salaries of chiefs and councillors.
The 2013 legislation has already resulted in the election defeat of two B.C. aboriginal politicians, a husband and ex-wife team at the Shuswap First Nation, who paid themselves well over $200,000 a year in tax-free dollars in each of the past four years.
“The Act applies the same principles of transparency and accountability to First Nation governments that already exist for other governments in Canada,” Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt said in a statement.
He said the federal government will now move to withhold funds for non-essential services, publish the names of the non-compliant, and launch court action against First Nations that have openly refused to comply.
The declaration came the same day the newly elected Shuswap chief expressed bafflement that her supposedly wealthy band can’t meet its own staff payroll.
Barbara Cote, who credited her election win to revelations reported by Postmedia about her predecessors’ exorbitant salaries, said she arrived in the band office after her victory to find the cupboard essentially bare. Her predecessors had claimed the First Nation had built up assets worth $75 million, thanks to successful businesses that included a resort, a supermarket and real estate holdings.
Cote suspended Dean Martin, the 61-year-old son of former chief Paul Sam and ex-councillor Alice Sam, from his role as CEO of Kinbasket Development Corp., the band’s development arm. Martin, in a recent interview with the Windspeaker, an online aboriginal news site, said he was considering legal action.
Across Canada 529 of 582 First Nations have complied. Valcourt said the federal government won’t take action against one of the 53 offside on the new law, the Kashechewan First Nation in Ontario, due to a flood.