Onion Lake Cree First Nation Sue Federal Government over Transparency Law

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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A First Nations band with substantial oil and gas holdings, Onion Lake Cree First Nation, has announced to lay an 11th-hour lawsuit against the recently imposed federal transparency law that seek public disclosure of all finances. On the last day set for providing the financial data, i.e. Wednesday, Chief Wallace Fox of the Onion Lake Cree First Nation announced to reject the “threatening letters” from the federal Aboriginal Affairs Department that threatened to withhold funds for non-compliance with the First Nations Financial Transparency Act.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Bernard Valcourt, can lose up to $1 million in housing funds, along with funding for about 800 employees. Fox, representing a band of 4,000 people about 50 km north of Lloydminster, Alta., stated that “enough is enough.” He mentioned that “they don’t have the legal right to withhold trust money” promised under treaties. In addition to that, the band has alleged that seeking disclosure of financial details of its oil and gas business, which entails at least 400 wells producing 14,000 barrels a day, is discriminatory when other businesses are protected by commercial confidentiality.

According to Fox, the band already provides audited financial statements for all federal funding received and those figures are public. But he stressed that other revenue, from its oil and gas operations, is not taxpayer money and therefore disclosures of those details “belongs to the citizens of Onion Lake.” He stressed that “we disclose the salaries of councillors and chief and we don’t get any federal funding for those salaries.” It was added that “we have supplemented federal funding with our own dollars and we do a line-by-line audit in the community hall every year.”

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