An Alberta researcher says First Nations don’t necessarily need more money from the federal government but they do need to work on getting greater outside financial accreditation.
A new paper by Joseph Quesnel argues certifications such as International Standardization for Organization can help Indigenous communities with borrowing money at competitive interest rates for various infrastructure priorities.
Quesnel says the infrastructure challenges many First Nations face are not necessarily due to a lack of available funds.
“I think a lot of the problems are governance issues on First Nations,” he says. “We see it through our Aboriginal governance index that there’s problems with accountability and transparency.”
Rather, Quesnel adds government money would be better spent helping First Nations to gain these outside accreditations.
“The problem is First Nations don’t have a provincial finance authority like municipalities do to fund infrastructure, so this would allow them to borrow at the kind of similar rates.”
He says another financial certification that could help Indigenous communities borrow money is the First Nations Financial Management Board.
Quesnel works for the Frontier Centre For Public Policy.
The paper is called Finding Strength From Within.