Peter d'Errico: Canada's hypocrisy in treatment of First Nations

"Accountability" has been a prominent theme of critics of First Nations governments. Canada's new law, the First Nations Financial Transparency Act, requires First Nations to publish annual audited consolidated financial statements they already prepare (and many already publish), as well as a schedule of chiefs and councilors'’ salaries and expenses.

Don Lenihan, of the Public Policy Forum in Ottawa, pointed out that this law will not end the debate, since "accountability" means more than reporting where money goes: it means reporting decision-making and "outcomes"—why money was spent on one thing rather than another, and what this achieved. He adds, "When it comes to accountability for outcomes, mainstream governments are only marginally ahead of First Nations — and hardly in a position to lecture them on it."

Polls conducted by Ipsos in January 2013, during protests by Idle No More—including the fast by Attawapiskat Nation Chief Theresa Spence—showed an 81 percent national Canadian majority opinion that "no additional taxpayer money should go to any Reserve until external auditors can be put in place to ensure financial accountability." The rub is that First Nations already have external auditors, whose reports are public. Suffice it to say that poll answers demonstrate ignorance as well as opinion trends.