Chiefs' salaries top premiers,' figures show

Dozens of First Nations band chiefs earn more pay than the average provincial premier, according to newly released federal figures obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, which has long lobbied the government to publicly disclose the earnings of chiefs and councillors.

A series of access to information requests reveals that at least 30 unnamed First Nations chiefs took home more than $110,000 in tax-free income in 2008-2009 -- exceeding the average after-tax income of $109,893 paid to premiers that same year.

"To be paying their top elected officials the same as provincial premiers, who quite often serve populations of a million or more, is pretty shocking," said Colin Craig, prairie director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, adding that some reserves are as small as a few hundred people. "A good portion of those dollars would be tax dollars."

The records--which do not include names, travel allowances, severance incomes, or pay gleaned from band-owned businesses -- show that the highest individual salary paid in 2008-2009 was $247,100. Fifty-six chiefs earned at least $90,000 in untaxed on-reserve income.

The data was made public as part of what the federation calls a "campaign for transparency of band council salaries," which has been punctuated by headline-grabbing releases of compensation information received through anonymous brown envelopes.

Grand Chief Ron Evans, of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, said he is "not so much surprised [by the chiefs' incomes] because there is nothing in place to prevent this."

Margot Geduld, a spokesperson for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, said First Nations governments are responsible for determining their salary and other forms of compensation. "It's ultimately up to First Nations members to decide if that level of compensation is appropriate," she said.

That compensation is paid in part by the federal budget allocated to First Nations communities, which for this fiscal year is $7.2-billion.

Although First Nations bands are heavily subsidized by Canadian taxpayers, Ms. Geduld said Ottawa does not publicly disclose information on the individual compensation of First Nations chiefs because of privacy concerns surrounding earnings through proprietary band-owned businesses.

Ms. Geduld did say, however, that the average salary and honoraria for a chief was about $60,000, and that compensation ranges nationally from nothing to $250,000.

First Nations community members -- who do not pay taxes -- can approach their representatives directly, but chiefs and councillors are not compelled to disclose their salaries.

"When the money doesn't come from the pockets of people on the reserve, when it instead comes from other taxpayers via Ottawa, there's really no reason to rein in salaries," said Mark Milke, director of the Fraser Institute's Alberta office and author of Incomplete, Illiberal and Expensive: 15 Years of Treaty Negotiations in B.C.

Mr. Milke said incomes for chiefs should be made publicly available, just as they are for elected municipal, provincial and federal officials.

Earlier this month, Conservative MP Kelly Block introduced a private member's bill proposing to make public the salaries and expenses of First Nations chiefs and councillors.

"Once a council and a First Nations chief determine their salaries, they should be compelled to publicly disclose that information, because those are public funds," Ms. Block said in an interview yesterday. "This has been a long-standing issue among community members seeking this information, and I believe strongly in the principles of transparency and accountability regardless of your ethnicity."

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo -- who in July disclosed his remuneration of $136,500 for the last fiscal year -- has called Ms. Block's bill "ill-conceived." He argued in a statement earlier this month that the proposal "appears to be part of a troubling series of insinuations about First Nations peoples, based on misinformation and a lack of understanding as to what the real accountability issues are."

Grand Chief Evans, meantime, said the Manitoba Assembly has "no problem with transparency," but said that he will not support the bill unless it addresses the issue of pensions. He also suggested that the bill, which will be debated next month, include a minimum and maximum compensation for chiefs and councillors.

The limited data obtained by the Canadian Taxpayer Federation, which has since issued a complaint to the Information Commissioner, shows the earnings of unnamed band chiefs at more than 500 First Nations across Canada. More than 300 chiefs were paid at least $50,000, and five were paid nothing at all.