Ottawa to Make Companies Report Payments to Native Bands

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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The federal government’s newly proposed measures have asked require mining and oil companies to report all payments made to native band councils and their corporations as part of Ottawa’s clear policy change to include greater transparency among aboriginal governments. Sources confirm that officials from Natural Resources Canada are consulting with industry, non-governmental organizations and aboriginal communities over plans to require mandatory reporting of all payments made by resource companies to foreign and domestic governments.

In contrast to comparable regulations in the United States and Europe, the federal rules also include aboriginal governments and their corporations. This unique obligation for mandatory resource-revenue reporting has come amid rigorous efforts by the federal government to increase financial disclosure from aboriginal communities and fight concerns over mismanagement and corruption. The need for such a measure was reassured by a recent high-profile case, when the former co-manager of the remote Attawapiskat Reserve in Northern Ontario, and common-law spouse of chief Theresa Spence, was charged by Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service with two counts of fraud and theft in conclusion of the band council‘s own investigation.

According to a discussion paper released by the Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa hopes provincial securities regulators will implement the mandatory reporting requirement to meet with standards set by the U.S. and EU. However, if the provincial bodies chose not to follow, a legislation will be introduced in September and take effect a year from now.