Onion Lake Chief Wallace Fox. File Photo
An Onion Lake Cree Nation member has filed a court application demanding Onion Lake chief and council disclose all of their financial documents.
Onion Lake member Charmaine Stick recently filed the motion with the backing of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
The motion demands chief and council release financial documents required by the First Nations Financial Transparency Act.
The Transparency Act was introduced by the Harper Government in 2013 requiring a public disclosure of all First Nation financial statements.
Onion Lake was one of a handful of First Nations who refused to comply and took the federal government to court over the act.
The Federal Court of Canada sided with Onion Lake, putting a halt to the legal action against the reserve.
In December of last year, the Liberal government announced they would no longer enforce the transparency act.
Stick claims she has been trying to get access to Onion Lake’s financial statements, but without success.
“Why won’t (Chief Wallace Fox) show his own people and everyone else what’s going on with his money?” she asks.
As a co-applicant in the submission, many of the legal expenses were covered by CTF donors.
For Todd MacKay, Prairie Director of the CTF, the court application goes beyond the transparency act.
“It is also based on the simple fact that the leaders of any organization have a fiduciary and legal responsibility to be open and transparent about the money with the members of the organization,” he says. “So even without this legislation, Onion Lake has a responsibility to be open with this money.”
Onion Lake chief and council have yet to be reached for comment.