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Tuesday, July 15, 2008
A step toward accountability in First Nations communities
In his recent column on First Nations, Colin Craig, Manitoba director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, argues that...
One reason for a lack of accountability on reserves is the fact that up until now, no one (even the department of Indian and Northern Affairs) could audit individual reserves and track how funds were being spent. Yes, over the last 141 years, the federal government has been unable to ensure that the hundreds of billions of tax dollars it has transferred to First Nations communities are used for their intended programs and services.
To address this problem, the CTF has been calling for audits of reserve spending for years. Thankfully, the federal government has finally listened. As of July 1st, Ottawa will now be able to audit the spending activities of first nation communities. This will bring them inline with other agencies that receive funding from the government.
Keeping reading “A step toward accountability” here.
Posted by Matthew Johnston on July 15, 2008 in Aboriginal Issues | Permalink
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Comments
About f'en time. I have heard that the bands were only audited at their own request,which usually happened when there was a power shift.This is not racism and/or terrorism,but common sense and responsibility. You spend my money,I want to know where,or you don't get any more. Tough love that a child of nine could understand.
Posted by: wallyj | 2008-07-15 5:50:26 PM
wallyj: You took the words right out of my mouth: ABOUT TIME. WHAT TOOK SO LONG?
Methinks it has something to do about a whole lotta people not wanting where this money's gone exposed. I suspect there's a whole lotta shaking (int their boots) going on.
ABOUT TIME.
Posted by: batb | 2008-07-15 6:22:38 PM
Sorry folks but do not hold your breath. Similar attempts have been made in the past to no avail. Expect cries of racism, discrimination, interference into Native autonomy or whatever. Of course I do hope this time will be different, so I shall have to wait and see.
Posted by: Alain | 2008-07-15 7:05:18 PM
Corrupt Chiefs stealing taxpayer's money, using that theft to pay off their Liberal friends, all the while abusing the basic human rights of aboriginals on Reserves. They should be imprisoned.
Posted by: philanthropist | 2008-07-15 10:13:35 PM
To every cry of racism, bigotry, discrimination, interference, we should respond: ghettoized twice (or maybe three times).
Native Canadians are ghettoized on their reserves;
Then they are ghettoized by society's wrapping them in cotton batten to protect them from high expectations;
Finally, they are ghettoized by their Chiefs' paternalistic--NOT--attitude: We know best (and we know how to feather our own nests).
Good G*d. Can't Native leaders--sadly, that's almost an oxymoron--see that it's THEY who are bigoted, racist, and indiscriminate in their handling of their own affairs? Can't they see that they, more than any other factor, are responsible for holding their own people down by their low expectations and their mishandling and misappropriation of government funds?
They'd better shake a feather on those fancy headresses of theirs and wake up to reality: Be accountable or commit your people to substandard living conditions ad nauseum.
Posted by: batb | 2008-07-16 8:06:32 AM
>"As of July 1st, Ottawa will now be able to audit the spending activities of first nation communities. This will bring them inline with other agencies that receive funding from the government."
Yeah, and we'll know just as much about where our taxes are going as the "other agencies that receive funding from the government."
Which is about ZERO thanks to the "Freedom From Information Act" firewall the governments and their agents have erected to shield US from THEIR incompetence.
In the theory it's a good idea though, in theory.
Posted by: Speller | 2008-07-16 9:57:21 AM
Easy solution...stop giving them any money at all. They want to govern themseleves, let them.
Posted by: ray oule | 2009-05-13 12:17:54 PM
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