First Nation Chief Pay; Why a Secret?

[jbg]

Not a bad way to live, given how great a job they do for the band members. Link and excerpts below.

Bill Forcing Native Chiefs to Reveal Pay Clears Hurdle

(link)

By John Ivison, National Post · Thursday, Mar. 3, 2011

Conservatives on Parliament Hill pronounced themselves "stunned" after the surprise passage of a private member's bill that is seeking to improve accountability on First Nations reserves.

"Every indication was that the bill was going down in flames," said one Tory in the Prime Minister's Office.

*********************

The bill would force all First Nations bands to make public the salaries of chiefs and councillors, many of whom don't tell their band members how much they earn.

It was introduced after the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation claimed that scores of chiefs and council members earn more than the Prime Minister. One reserve in Nova Scotia called Glooscap was revealed to be home to three of the highest-paid politicians in Canada, with one band councillor earning almost $1-million tax-free.

Why aren't they proud to be such heavy-duty earners?

[Saipan]

Because some are paid more than Premiers. So much for the "poverty".

[jbg]

Because some are paid more than Premiers. So much for the "poverty".

Besides the obvious waste in human lives, one wonders if the situation described in this article (link, excerpts below) , especially the Federal reluctance to commit massive funds, may result from fear of diversion and corruption by the Band chief:

FIRST NATIONS-Still waiting in Attawapiskat (Page 1 of 5)

A Cree community on James Bay has been fighting for a new elementary school for more than a decade. Will Indian and Northern Affairs Canada fail the next generation?

If Shannen Koostachin were alive, she would tell you this story herself. She would describe every corner of Attawapiskat with precision, answer every question with patience and watch your eyes carefully as you listened.

She feared nothing, that girl. Not strangers, not defeat. Travelling far from her home, she appealed to Canadian teenagers for help in the fight for a decent elementary school for the kids of the Attawapiskat First Nation on the western coast of James Bay. Two years ago, at the age of 13, Shannen stood beside a pair of grade-eight friends at a news conference on Parliament Hill. In clear voices, they made their case to the country. Then they marched off to confront the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC).

“When we met up with him, Chuck Strahl told me he didn’t have the money to build a school,” Shannen later told a gym full of high school students. “I looked at the rich room he sat in with all his staff. I told him I wished I had a classroom that was as nice as the office he sat in every day. He told me he couldn’t stay for more of the meeting because he had other things to do. We were very upset. The elders who were with us had tears in their eyes. But when he was about to leave, I looked him straight in the eye and said, ‘Oh, we’re not going to quit. We’re not going to give up.’”

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The long search for Ian Kamalatisit was hard enough on the teenagers of Attawapiskat, but their spring ordeal deepened. On April 23, Dakota Nakogee, age 16, died of kidney failure three months after giving birth to her baby Elizabeth. A year earlier, on April 24, 2009, Brendon Kioke, age 15, a popular hockey player who wore the number 22 jersey on the Akimiski Islanders, had died as a result of gunshot wounds. This tragic coincidence seemed to set off a terrible spiral of despair among some young people, who saw a pattern in their grief.

“Youth suicide is a big issue here,” said Theresa Hall, then chief of the Attawapiskat First Nation. “Just in April, we had seven attempts. I think the fact that we are losing other young people — the gun accident and the drowning accident — is encouraging this problem right now.” She also talked about the lethal curse of crystal meth and other hard drugs in a town where police searches at the airport are too costly to be routine, allowing poison to drift into town like smoke.

Death strikes the young in Attawapiskat for too many reasons and for no reason.

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There is no library, no cafeteria, no art room, no music room. There are no heated corridors between the scattered classrooms. Every day, children and teachers walk inside and outside — inside and outside, inside and outside — through blizzards, ice fog, sleet and thunderstorms. Maintenance workers move a rough wooden ramp to a different portable every year to allow access to a disabled student as he moves through the grades.

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[Jerry J. Fortin]

Look. this is the way it is. I am all for changing the way things are but this is not up to us. Its the peoples of the first nations whose voices must be heard.

[Wild Bill]

I voted yes! I believe in populism. Members of a band living on a reserve have a right to know how the money allocated from the government is being handles. There is no good reason why their leaders should be able to keep things secret.

From the sound of things, the money being paid to some leaders could easily provide more schools.

[Topaz]

I say the Feds should have been doing a better job towards the First Nation people. There are problems in some Bands with money justlike we have problems within our government with money. To know what is really going on, I suggest Canadians watch the senate meetings on the First Nations. The Tories make promises and don't keep them and other times they don't follow through on their word. In this day and age, no Canadians should go without the basics such a good and clean water to drink but the First Nation is still fighting.

[Saipan]

I say the Feds should have been doing a better job towards the First Nation people.

Indians are unable to handle money?

Too much spent on booze?

There are problems in some Bands with money justlike we have problems within our government with money.

But we don't need government to fix our plumbing or clean our floor and dishes.

[Scotty]

When you have a band of 300 people where four councillors are each earning more than the premier of the province you know you've got issues. I wonder how many people living in squalor on some of those reserves would be amazed at how much money their band councilors and chief are raking in.

[Saipan]

Reminds me Yasar Arafat and the countless millions of international help to palestinians - who lived as poor as ever.

Then it was discovered after Yasar died that it was all in his personal acounts around the globe - when his wife, living in luxury in Paris, started to search for the money.

Giving money to primitive potentates is same as filling bottomless pit.

[jbg]

Too much spent on booze?

High octane gasoline for sniffing is also rising in price.

[Shady]

I don't know how anyone could be against this initiative. Except for the cheifs themselves I guess.

[jbg]

...cheifs....

Is that written in Canadian, like "harbour" and "labour", as contradistinguished from English?

[Evening Star]

You know the root of the word "English", right? (Hint: It's not "America".)

[Saipan]

You know the root of the word "English", right? (Hint: It's not "America".)

Is it from Hebrew?

Since Jews are "taking over".

[jbg]

You know the root of the word "English", right? (Hint: It's not "America".)

And I listened to a clip of your PM saying "a proof is a proof". Is that what you call English?

[Evening Star]

Hm... Which Sarah Palin or George W. Bush quote should I pull out first...?

[Shwa]

Giving money to primitive potentates is same as filling bottomless pit.

As evidenced by present Conservative government.

[Mr.Canada]

If the taxpayer is funding these Native bands then the public is entitled to know how it is being spent. That goes for any public money going our. We have a right to know how and where it's being spent. It's our money.

[guyser]

If the taxpayer is funding these Native bands then the public is entitled to know how it is being spent. That goes for any public money going our. We have a right to know how and where it's being spent. It's our money.

You have no right.

They are also not included in the Sunshine Laws.

[jbg]

You have no right.

They are also not included in the Sunshine Laws.

It's a right that we should have. (Almost wrote "we as Canadians" but caught myself)

[Saipan]

Hm... Which Sarah Palin or George W. Bush quote should I pull out first...?

Since it's about indian Chiefs try Ahenakew's quote about Jews.

[jbg]

Since it's about indian Chiefs try Ahenakew's quote about Jews.

I still believe Ahenekaw absolutely should have had the right to speak his mind. It's unlikely he will in the future notwithstanding any judicial vindication.

[Shwa]

I still believe Ahenekaw absolutely should have had the right to speak his mind. It's unlikely he will in the future notwithstanding any judicial vindication.

It's "unlikely" because he is dead.

[jbg]

It's "unlikely" because he is dead.

Duh.

[PIK]

I don't know how anyone could be against this initiative. Except for the cheifs themselves I guess.

My understanding is the libs have alway fought against opening up the books, why I wonder ,maybe because they created this whole mess.