A First Nations senator from Saskatchewan says she walked out of a senate meeting last night after realizing the rules were stacked against her and her colleagues.
Lillian Dyck is a member of the George Gordon First Nation and a member of the Senate Standing Committee on Aboriginal Peoples.
Last night, she and two other aboriginal senators, both Liberals, walked out of a senate hearing during testimony by Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan.
Dyck says she was trying to ask the minister questions about Bill C-27, the First Nations Transparency and Accountability act that would force First Nations to make their finances public.
She says the minister made it sound like the bill would solve all the problems for members trying to find out how money is spent on their reserve.
“I was trying to ask him questions and I only got two or three questions in and – I am the critic of the bill – we have a new chair and he cut me off,” she says. “I didn’t get a chance to ask all my questions and it interrupted my train of thought.”
She says the act basically means bands have to post their information online.
But it doesn’t solve the deeper need of helping First Nations get the tools they need to improve their finances.
Dyck also worries about measures contained in the bill that could allow Ottawa to severely penalize bands that aren’t complying with the legislation.
“So, for instance, I said is it possible as a penalty for non-compliance – as is according to the bill – that they can withhold or terminate funding to the whole band,” she says. “And they said, ‘Oh no, we would never do that,’ So if they are never going to do that, why is it in the bill?”
Dyck says many of the questions sought by band members over finances will likely need to come from forensic audits.