Chiefs required to reveal salaries; protest drowns out announcement

A native protest disrupted a federal government announcement in Winnipeg Wednesday on the passage of a new law forcing First Nations leaders to disclose their salaries.

Federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt was at the Four Points Sheraton airport hotel at noon to announce the First Nations Financial Transparency Act was to receive Royal Assent – the last step before a bill becomes law.

Ottawa says the law “strengthens transparency and accountability by requiring First Nations to publish the annual audited consolidated financial statements they already prepare, as well as a schedule of chiefs and councillors’ salaries and expenses. The accounting standards are in line with other levels of government in Canada.”

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But the event was frequently drowned out, and then cut short, by yelling and drumming by a native protester who attended along with a handful of other protesters.

They drowned out remarks by Phyllis Sutherland, a member of Manitoba’s Peguis First Nation who revealed documents in 2009 showing councillors from the community of 7200 were making as much as $310,000.

Sutherland and the minister eventually gave up and left the room.

“What you witnessed here today was one protestor shutting up an aboriginal woman who tried to speak her mind. If that’s what the movement is about then I’m sorry,” Valcourt said.

But some say the new law is a smokescreen for other issues facing First Nations that the federal government is failing to deal with.

“There are municipal librarians in this country making six figure salaries to manage books, yet we have communities that have housing crises, flooding crises, water crises, and they have to manage the lives of their people on less than that,” said Pam Palmater, Director for Indigenous Governance at Ryerson University.

Palmater said the average salary for First Nations leaders is only $36,000 a year.