Alberta chiefs develop proposal on accountability

Page 1

First Nation chiefs from Alberta's Treaty 6, 7 and 8 areas want to re-write the book on band accountability.

In August of last year, the federal government announced it was distributing a 92-page handbook with more than 300 questions which Canada's First Nations were to answer. The answers would show how each band would handle accountability of administration, from financial accounting, leadership selection and the administration of social programs, to education and housing issues.

The government's plan didn't sit well with many First Nations. Many believed the government had no business setting policy on reserve-based matters.

The chiefs' new plan will see them set the criteria for establishing their own accountability procedures.

"The chiefs feel that they have been silent much too long on issues surrounding the control and management of accountability in First Nations," said George Arcand, a technician working on the chiefs' proposal.

Arcand didn't say the chiefs were completely scrapping the government's accountability questionnaire, but said the proposed accountability framework "is going to be an Alberta First Nations directive," with some parts being "comparable and others not" to the federal government's attempt to define accountability.

The proposal will give Alberta's First Nation's more control over their own destiny, he said. "We believe we should be responsible to our people, not to the federal government. . . The accountability needs to be, and should be, to the membership."

Arcand said the planning of the new accountability document has been in the works for some time. Its implementation was due, in part, to recent reports of band mismanagement and the less than positive portrayal of several Alberta First Nations in provincial and national news reports.

The new proposal, so far in the very early stages of discussion, will go through several stages of further discussion with Alberta's chiefs and the federal government before it is presented to Indian Affairs Minister Jane Stewart at the April 2 Alberta Chiefs' Summit in Calgary.

Alexander First Nation Chief Stanley Arcand believes the new proposal gives Alberta's Aboriginal leaders and the people they represent a better sense of self-direction.

"It is going to be an Alberta-made product, made here in Alberta by the chiefs," said Arcand.