End secret salaries

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/10/2010 (5554 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The chief and band councillors of Manitoba’s O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation near St. Rose du Lac govern only slightly more than 500 people. Although the band runs a $500,000 deficit (2008-09) and carries a $1.2-million debt, it paid its chief and three band councillors between $106,000 and $144,000 each in 2008-2009. That is about as much as Canadian premiers get to run whole provinces, but it is not unusual on First Nations. Citing information obtained under an access to information request, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation reports that at least 30 First Nation chiefs across the country were paid more than Canadian provincial premiers.

The issue raises two concerns. One is the disparity between what a band elite earns and what its often impoverished members have left to live on, since most of the money on many reserves comes from federal government payouts. The second is that, in general, the salaries of chiefs are not public knowledge even though they are paid with public money. The CTF had to use the access to information act to obtain its information, but even then it was denied the right to know which chiefs were making how much.

Ron Evans, grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, has said that “treaties don’t mean First Nations owe anything to the Canadian public.” But it is Canadians who pay their salaries from money drawn out of funds given to individual bands. Band members have a right to know what their chief is being paid and so do taxpayers. Secret salaries can only be sources of suspicion.