Brian Lilley:
One of the biggest themes in politics right now is transparency,
letting the taxpayers, the people who foot the bill, know where their
money is being spent. Most politicians have accepted it but others
continue to fight.
This week a group of Native leaders announced
they would take the federal government to court to challenge the First
Nations Financial Transparency Act. ...
Here in BC the Legislative Assembly makes the law on financial accountability/transparency applicable to all municipalities, towns and cities in the province. They are required to publicly account for every penny of taxpayers' money spent. Also by law, they are required to publicly reveal the salaries of every public servant earning $75,000 or more (by name, alphabetically). I'm sure this is also the case for every other municipality, town and city across the country.
As the provinces are for their municipalities, etc, the federal government is responsible for setting the rules for financial accounting on Indian Reserves. Chief Fox and others objecting to this (as "racist", no less) is absolutely asinine. Their objections to financial transparency are beyond bizarre! (the only possible reason is that they have some very interesting things to hide). What is also bizarre is that such laws haven't always been in place.
I doubt they have legal leg to stand on, but should their attempt to avoid accountability make it into court let's hope they don't draw some bone-head of a liberal judge who sympathizes with them.