Stung by allegations of inflated pay, native chiefs to open their books
Posted on December 11, 2010 in Equality Debates
Source: Globe & Mail — Authors: Bill Curry
TheGlobeandMail.com – news/politics
Published Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010. Bill Curry, Ottawa
Under fire over revelations that some of them are paid better than provincial premiers, Canada’s native chiefs are poised to make an unprecedented commitment to open their books.
The more than 600 chiefs of the Assembly of First Nations are expected to adopt a resolution next week promising to “lead by example” through the clear and timely release of audits, public accounts, salaries, honorariums and expenses of their chiefs and council.
The resolution also calls on the Harper government to work with native leaders to help develop an independent oversight office – either a native ombudsperson or Auditor-General.
The push for full disclosure is in response to a series of stories generated by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation alleging that hundreds of chiefs and councillors are being paid the equivalent of $100,000 or more and that more than 200 are paid more than their respective premiers.
The AFN disputes these figures, arguing that the taxpayers group is creating alarm with inflated numbers by including travel costs and per diems as salary. The issue is also being raised by Conservative MP Kelly Block, who introduced a private member’s bill this fall that would require chiefs and councillors to publicly disclose salaries and expenses.
AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo acknowledged in an interview that many chiefs have come to the conclusion that the best way to respond to the controversy is to provide full disclosure.
“I’ve had a good number of calls from chiefs saying, ‘You know, there’s every reason why we should just confront this directly,’ and they will be bringing a resolution forward,” he said. “In speaking with chiefs, there’s a great concern that the public discussion, the information that’s come out of the [Canadian Taxpayers Federation], has really painted all chiefs with a broad brush. It just isn’t true that all 633 chiefs are corrupt or are receiving pay that isn’t acceptable or are not accountable to their citizens and their communities. It’s just simply not the case.”
Mr. Atleo said many chiefs are already making such information public. He also noted that the AFN has advocated a native ombudsperson and/or Auditor-General since 2006, but the federal government has not been interested.
Reached for comment, the head of the taxpayers federation, Kevin Gaudet, said the AFN resolution sounds like “great news.”
“If that means going forward they’re going to commit to make the things public that we’ve been calling for, wonderful. I don’t see a downside to that,” he said. “Transparency breeds accountability and that’s a wonderful thing. …The campaign we’ve advocated has been on behalf of grassroots aboriginals themselves, so good for its leadership if it’s going to follow through on what its membership has been seeking.”
Mr. Atleo said the AFN motion does not mean chiefs will support Ms. Block’s private member’s bill, which the motion dismisses as “unnecessary and heavy-handed.”
Moved by Grand Chief Doug Kelly of B.C.’s Soowahlie First Nation, the draft motion commits chiefs and council to release audits, public accounts, salaries, honorariums and expenses and to ensure “information about community finances and decision-making is easily accessible, and available via the Internet where applicable.”
The resolution will be debated and voted on at the AFN’s annual general assembly next week at the Hilton Lac Leamy in Gatineau. Auditor-General Sheila Fraser is scheduled to speak at the assembly.
< http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/stung-by-allegations-of-inflated-pay-native-chiefs-to-open-their-books/article1834057/ >
Tags: budget, Indigenous
This entry was posted on Saturday, December 11th, 2010 at 12:08 pm and is filed under Equality Debates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
269 Responses to “Stung by allegations of inflated pay, native chiefs to open their books”
« Older Comments | Newer Comments »
Recent Comments
Please let us know when you plan to publish your book!
I like what you have to offer. Keep up the good work!
Thanks pertaining to discussing the following superb written content on your site. I ran into it on the search engines. I will check back again if you publish extra aricles.
This has to be one of my favorite posts! And on top of thats its also very helpful topic for newbies. thank a lot for the information!
have already been reading ur blog for a couple of days. really enjoy what you posted. btw i will be doing a report about this topic. do you happen to know any great websites or forums that I can find out more? thanks a lot.
I appreciate your work, thanks for all the great blog posts.
While this issue can vexed most people, my thought is that there has to be a middle or common ground that we all can find. I do value that you’ve added pertinent and sound commentary here though. Thank you!
Our family had similar issues, thanks.
Glad to be one of many visitants on this amazing site : D.
Great post. Just a heads up – I am running Ubuntu with the beta of Firefox and the navigation of your blog is kind of broken for me.
Thanks a bunch for sharing this with all people you really recognize what you are talking about! Bookmarked. Kindly also seek advice from my web site =). We can have a link alternate contract between us!
I don’t know if it’s just me or if everybody else experiencing issues with your site. It appears as though some of the written text on your content are running off the screen. Can someone else please provide feedback and let me know if this is happening to them as well? This could be a problem with my web browser because I’ve had this happen before. Appreciate it
If you don’t mind, where do you host your weblog? I am looking for a very good web host and your webpage seams to be extremely fast and up most the time…
I wanted to check up and let you know how, a great deal I cherished discovering your blog today. I might consider it an honor to work at my office and be able to utilize the tips provided on your blog and also be a part of visitors’ reviews like this. Should a position associated with guest writer become on offer at your end, make sure you let me know.
Hello. Great job. I did not expect this on a Wednesday. This is a great story. Thanks!
I’ll check back after you publish more articles.
A friend of mine advised this site. And yes. it has some useful pieces of info and I enjoyed scaning it. Therefore i would love to drop you a quick note to express my thank. Take care
A thoughtful insight and ideas I will use on my blog. You’ve obviously spent some time on this. Congratulations
This is something that will need all of our combined efforts to address.
Pretty impressive article. I just stumbled upon your site and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your opinions. Any way I’ll be coming back and I hope you post again soon.