A University of Saskatchewan professor says new federal legislation is highlighting how little some First Nations chiefs and council in the province actually earn.
The Harper government’s First Nations Financial Transparency Act, which came into effect at the end of last month, requires all bands to post chief and council salaries on the government’s website.
Information posted by First Nations in this province so far, shows some chiefs are earning close to $150,000 per year.
However, the same information reveals other chiefs are earning as little as $10,000 to $12,000 per year.
Ken Coates, who teaches at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, says this information reinforces just how poor some Saskatchewan First Nations are.
“When you get those really low salaries, basically they reflect the fact that we have some incredibly poor communities in Saskatchewan. If you look at the community well-being index for Aboriginal communities — it’s not a perfect measure — but it provides a pretty good indication of how different communities across the country are doing. And Saskatchewan has some of the worst performance in Canada.”
At the beginning of this week, 33 Saskatchewan First Nations had their chief and council salaries posted on the Aboriginal Affairs website — roughly 47 per cent of all bands in the province.