Almost Two-Third First Nations Fail to Unveil Their Finances

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Almost a week past the new legal deadline, there are still approximately two-third of Canada’s First Nations that have failed to update Ottawa about their detailed financial information. The First Nations Financial Transparency Act acquired royal assent and became a law in 2013, allowing communities until July 29 to publish or submit their financial reports.

Although the act applies to roughly 600 First Nations across Canada, government sources claim that the federal department of Aboriginal Affairs merely received reports from 224 First Nations, i.e. almost 37 per cent of affected First Nations. However, the law asks First Nations to either submit the reports to Aboriginal Affairs, so the department can publicly disclose the information on its website, or simply post them on the community’s website directly. Consequently, there could be more First Nations, in addition to the 224 that sent reports to Ottawa, who might have posted their information online themselves and abided the law.

The officials at Aboriginal Affairs are consistently collecting and compiling the reports since last week, posting the information on the department’s website as it is ready. A spokesperson for Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt, Erica Meekes, mentioned that the government plans to send reminder letters to bands that are not in compliance. She stressed that “the law is the law” and “after 120 calendar days, if there is no resolution, for bands that are refusing to comply with the law, the government will take action according to the provisions of the law, which could include withholding of funding.”