A group of bands says it has no intention of complying with the Harper government’s First Nations Financial Transparency Act.
The legislation requires First Nations to post their financial statements and chief and council salaries on the government’s website.
The group, which is led by Onion Lake Cree Nation Chief Wallace Fox, met Monday in Saskatoon.
Fox says the elected members of First Nations need only be accountable to their band members and no one else.
“We’re accountable to our people, we provide every year in Onion Lake a budgeting exercise that lasts four days, line by line, including our chief and council salaries and it’s approved,” he says. “Without their approval, we don’t get paid. We don’t get paid our salaries, so we’re accountable to them, not the rest of Canada.”
The government says bands that have not complied with the act by Nov. 26 could face financial penalties such as the withholding of non-essential and new funding.
Fox says he thinks the government is bluffing.
“They starved all our people, then herded us in the reservations under the Indian Act system and they’re still doing this in 2014 and they’re still going to threaten to starve our people. Now they’re threatening to withhold funds entirely? Get real. Are they going to do it? I don’t think so.”
He also says no other level of government is legally required to post its financial information online so he can’t understand why First Nations have to.
The group includes bands from Treaty 4, Treaty 6 and Treaty 7 areas.