The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation is among six bands being taken to court for failing to comply with the First Nations Financial Transparency Act. But it says it’s ready to go up against Ottawa because it hasn’t accepted funding in nearly three years.
“We provide that information to our members and the people we’re accountable to. And in this case those funds aren’t accountable to the federal government. Those are our own privately procured funds,” says ACFN Spokesperson Eriel Deranger.
ACFN owns and operates Acden Group Ltd. a business with contracts in fleet maintenance, waste management, recycling and other services. Deranger says the company does work in the oil and gas sector among many others, and it’s a main source of revenue.
“We run our entire offices off of the funds that we create through our business group and we’re very proud of that fact,” she says. “But that doesn’t mean that we have to put our salaries, the compensation of our chief and council, and everything we do, online.”
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation proposed the transparency act and says it was meant to protect countless band members across the country who contacted the organization because they were being blocked from the information.
“They’d go and ask for it, they would be told either to take a hike or worse, we had some individuals tell us about being threatened when they asked for basic financial information like budgets, audits, ” says Acting Alberta Director Scott Hennig.
According to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, 48 out of 582 First Nations failed to post the financial information. The CTF says Ottawa is going after the right bands, the ones who have the resources to disclose the information and are refusing to do so.
The Fort McKay First Nation submitted its financial reports for the year that ended March 31, 2014. An audit report shows Chief Jim Boucher received a $644,441 salary for 12 months. The band generated $70,035,146 in revenue during 2014. It’s greatest revenue source was business enterprise income which was $28,486,647, but it still received $1,224,287 from Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada.
Ottawa also named the Cold Lake First Nation in the court challenge. It also refused to make its financial information public.
