Transparent Accountability

"First Nations community members across Canada will come to enjoy the benefits that flow from greater accountability and transparency, and that is: more investments, economic opportunities and partnerships.
"This legislation recognizes that First Nation members want no less than other Canadians when it comes to knowing how public funds are spent in their communities."
Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt

About time. Bill C-27, the Conservative-led effort to increase financial transparency on First Nation reserves passed its final approval in passage through the Senate, and has finally been signed into law. It is the law and has been formalized as such that accountability will now be practised, openly and transparently. Reserve members will no longer be in the dark about how their leaders are managing their funding on behalf of all those living on the reserve.

Those who support the new law insist that it will hugely benefit all reserve members, taking them from insecurity of information about band affairs to full appreciation of how their affairs are being conducted, from housing allocations to the salaries of reserve executives to employment opportunities along with health and education initiatives undertaken on their behalf.

Detractors of the new law decry the lack of consultation before its design and implementation, and above all, criticize its obvious disregard of First Nations' right to self-govern. The latter claim seems quite ridiculous in the face of the reality that many band councils govern in a secretive manner, failing to pass on vital information to their members.

Many also misallocate funding as well as disproportionately benefit a cadre that support them or represent family members.

Any member of the First Nation reserve community who sees the law not being respected by the band council now has the right to go to court to obtain the information being withheld. Any bands that do not comply with the new rules could face the stark wake-up reality that they will be imperilling the reliability of their federal funding.

"I think a lot of chiefs and councillors are going to be looking at this bill and scaling back their pay, because they know that, starting next year, they're going to have to start disclosing it", said Colin Craig of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, whose group has been at the forefront of urging just this kind of legislation for years.

Predictably, with any kind of initiative on this file from the federal government, the Assembly of First Nations opposed the bill from start to finish. National Chief Shawn Atleo laments that the law simply hands over more power to the minister of Aboriginal Affairs. "The answers lie in our communities and with our citizens, not with more control from Ottawa", he declared.

He may be partially correct, but so far, too many communities have proven to be incapable of providing adequately for themselves and their citizens. Until such time as the AFN comes up with some kind of universal governing structure applicable to all reserves, along with a code of ethics and responsibilities, and insists that band councils act in the best interests of their reserves without reservation, the answers that lie in their communities will remain mute.