Push for First Nations accountability gains traction

OTTAWA - Band council books across Canada are one step closer to being wedged open after a private member's bill on financial accountability passed a vote in Parliament late Wednesday.

MPs passed Bill C-575 - which will force elected First Nations officials to publicly disclose their pay packets to taxpayers - on its second reading by a vote of 151-128. It will now head to committee.

"I think this is a huge win for First Nations community members who have been calling for this kind of legislation for quite some time," said Saskatchewan Tory MP Kelly Block, who introduced the bill last fall.

Currently, elected officials on First Nations report spending to the federal government but don't publicly release the figures.

The fight for more accountability and transparency on First Nations reserves has a number of champions, including the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation, which has launched a national online campaign to blow the whistle on band council expenses.

"Voters ought to be able to make value-for-dollar decisions on politicians and you need transparency to do that," said the spending watchdog's federal director Kevin Gaudet.

The bill also has the support of Whitecap Dakota Chief Darcy Bear, who said he was mystified by opposition to the bill.

"We are a government and we act like a government," Bear said of his band council, which opened its books nearly two decades ago.

"We pride ourselves on our accountability," he said. "When you're accountable, dividends come back to your community."

The proposed legislation also has a groundswell of grassroots support from Aboriginals frustrated with a blackout on spending by some of their leaders.

But Don Kelly with the Assembly of First Nations said his organization was concerned the bill shifted the focus from more important problems like water and education on reserves, and noted the assembly was itself working towards boosting accountability on its own initiative.

Besides, Kelly contends, the feds lack accountability, too.

"(Indian affairs) has now ballooned into a billion-dollar bureaucracy," he said.