The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations is scheduled for an election in Saskatoon this week.
The organization will be electing three positions to its executive including Chief, and two Vice-Chief positions.
Days before the election however, the Chief of the Saskatoon Tribal Council raised concerns over the financial management of the FSIN.
At a news conference in Saskatoon Tuesday morning, Tribal Chief Mark Arcand presented a 153 page financial document of FSIN expenditures for the year ending in March 2023, which he says contains information that is concerning.
Arcand says First Nations chiefs in the province never saw this financial document, and even as a member of the FSIN treasury board, he only obtained it through an access to information request.
“This document was never presented to the 74 chiefs in assembly. What we get is the annual report, which does not have all the information,” said Arcand. “Now FSIN will tell you this audit was passed by the chiefs in assembly, and yes, it has been. However, I guarantee you if the Chiefs had this proper documentation they would’ve asked the same questions I’m revealing today.”
The Tribal Chief highlighted millions of dollars of expenditures that were concerning to him. These include a $6 million deficit during the year, $14 million in deferred revenue, $2 million in cash for a building lease, $11.4 million in consulting fees, and $3.6 million for non-staff travel. For Arcand, he feels these expenditures were not adequately communicated to First Nations people in the province and therefore were not properly scrutinized.
“Our goal in bringing this forward is our grassroots people need to be aware of what’s going on,” said Arcand. “I am not accusing anyone, but we need to improve our organization.”
James Smith Cree Nation Chief Kirby Constant also attended the press conference where he brought up concerns of his own.
Constant spoke of millions in funding that was supposed to be provided to James Smith for Personal Protective Equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic. Constant alleges Indigenous Services Canada provided the FSIN with $6.5 million in funding for the Cree Nation to purchase equipment. However, Constant says, only $5.5 million was used to purchase PPE supplies and the FSIN would keep the remaining $1 million as an administration fee. The James Smith chief also says the band was unaware the supplies were purchased and he only found out about the PPE supplies by following a monthly lease the band was paying for the supplies storage. Constant says the supplies have been destroyed and attempts for clarification from the FSIN have been unclear. In the meantime, much of the $5.5 million that was paid for the supplies is under litigation from the original partners of the PPE procurement business.
“Pretty alarming that this organization, the FSIN, is not being fully transparent, not being fully accountable, not being truthful,” said Constant. “If the pillars of the FSIN is honesty, integrity, and transparency, and accountability, none of those are being followed.”
In the meantime, the Government of Canada is currently conducting a forensic audit of the FSIN over a five-year period between 2019-2024. The results of that audit are expected in the coming months.
The FSIN has never publicly commented on the audit from the government.
Arcand says he feels confident the audit will reflect the concerns he is raising.
MBC News has reached out to the FSIN for comment on the statements made by Arcand. However, as of publication the organization has not yet responded.
Meanwhile, the FSIN will hold its election in Saskatoon on Thursday with Bobby Cameron seeking re-election as chief against challenger Aly Bear.
While Arcand did endorse Bear for Chief he did say it “doesn’t matter who is in the chair” as long as what he feels is this lack of financial transparency continues.
Updated to provide clarity on the PPE supplies designated for James Smith Cree Nation