First Nations transparency act should be reinstated

The Trudeau government’s suspension last month of a law forcing aboriginal chiefs and band councils to fess up about their spending reflects a big step backward for democratic accountability on reserves.

The Liberal action kneecaps the Financial Transparency Act, enacted in March 2013 by Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.

The law required 581 First Nations to submit annual audited financial statements and salary information of the chief and council to Ottawa. The information was then posted on the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs website.

It proved extremely effective, providing information to the governed about their governors and government, information they otherwise would never have had — information that proves particularly useful come voting time.

It is not as though this law singled out aboriginals for special scrutiny. Non-aboriginals enjoy access to such budgetary information through public accounts documents, reports from auditors general and data regularly posted on parliamentary websites.

As it turned out, the Financial Transparency Act turned up some stratospheric salary numbers for several chiefs across the country, with some becoming discredited and ousted as a result, while others were able to survive after justifying their pay levels to their constituents — which is the way democracy generally works.

But on Dec. 18, federal Liberals served notice they were halting compliance measures related to the act, reinstating any funding withheld under the act, and suspending any court actions against those who did not comply with the legislation.

The action was part of an effort by Trudeau’s team to reset the federal relationship with aboriginals, often prickly during the previous Conservative era. Some had criticized the transparency act as undermining First Nations’ accountability by prioritizing federal paternalism.

Few would argue it would have been far better for all involved had the aboriginal leaders undertaken on their own to fully disclose their bands’ spending practices. But that was not the norm. The result was that band members were being denied the governance accountability that has long been accepted as the norm for their nonaboriginal peers.

The Liberal government, in power less than three months, seems intent on taking a meat cleaver to all manner of Conservative legislation, and that is their right given their majority status.

But, while voters opted last October to toss the Conservatives, in so doing they were not rejecting all the Harper government’s actions.

The Financial Transparency Act was long overdue and remains essential in the absence of a decision by chiefs and councils to undertake voluntary budgetary disclosure.