Financial institutions now law

Page 13

The First Nations Fiscal and Statistical Management Act (Bill C-20) received royal assent on March 23 with all-party support in the House of Commons and the Senate.

C.T. (Manny) Jules, who led the development of the act, said the formal adoption of C-20 is "a triumph for First Nations and Canada. This bill was conceived and developed by First Nations and is about building infrastructure, attracting investment and creating jobs on reserve. Today's royal assent signals a new beginning."

The legislation creates four institutions: a finance authority, a tax commission, a financial management board and a statistical institute.

"All parties in the House of Commons and the Senate supported this legislation and they should be commended for recognizing the critical role Bill C-20 will play in promoting economic growth in First Nation communities," said Jules.

But not everybody is happy with the news. Two weeks before the Senate consented to the bill, First Nation leaders who oppose C-20 were allowed to speak to the Senate's standing committee on Aboriginal affairs. That came after the House of Commons' standing committee on Aboriginal affairs refused to hear them in December.

Five First Nation leaders told the senators they didn't want the bill. Eric Large, representing the Saddle Lake First Nation (Alberta), said the institutions will become "another multi-layered, costly bureaucracy, ostensibly created for First Nations."

By creating the financial management board, Large said, "the federal Crown is cunningly divesting itself of its treaty and constitutional obligations to treaty First Nations to provide adequate capital and fiscal resources to ensure the renewal or replacement of public works infrastructure and other social and economic services on reserve."

David General, chief of Six Nations (Ontario), said the government spent a lot of money pushing the bill through the legislative process and that said a lot about who was really driving it.

"The proponents of Bill C-20 are very well funded. They are able to maintain a constant lobby and when you combine the efforts of their principle lobbyists, the chairs of the four fiscal institutions and such federal officials who want Bill C- 20 passed, that, senators, is a considerable lobby force."

He told the committee that the "estimated costs for the four institutions ranges from $25- to 30-million annually. One only needs to check the public records and do the math."

Windspeaker did the math.

Information provided by Indian and Northern Affairs shows a total of $15.5 million had been budgeted from 2000 up to the end of the current fiscal year. That may or may not include the salaries and expenses of departmental officials who participated in the process of developing the legislation and shepherding it through the legislative process.

During a phone interview on March 22, General said a consultant provided the numbers he used.

"The difference that I see would be that these [numbers released by INAC] are for the advisory panels, getting the thing started. The numbers we're quoting are the numbers of how these things would operate, the budgets they'd be getting once they're operational," General said.

General also told the Senate committee that a conversation he had with a senior INAC official has convinced him that participation in the institutions would not be optional, even though it is portrayed as such.

"I have had the opportunity to talk to a senior government official on the following: Would there be any resources for infrastructure projects for First Nations who do not opt into Bill C-20? And the answer was no," he said.

The chiefs said the bill could eventually be deemed to be unconstitutional for a couple of reasons.

"As the bill is currently read, the First Nation leadership could forever wrap their membership in a web of fiscal institutions with the mere vote of a single council. Most alarming, there is no requirementfor community consultation. On the other hand, it is virtually impossible to get out of the proposed arrangements once established," General told the senators. "We would respectfully suggest that this proposed bill be reviewed by the Senate committee on legal and constitutional affairs to address this very question. This would save both Canada and Six Nations, all First Nations, valuable time, energy and resources that would most certainly be consumed by the courts."

But that didn't happen. Instead, all parties represented in the Senate rubber stamped the bill and sent it back to the House.

Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians (Ontario) Grand Chief Chris McCormick said the consultation that was conducted before the bill was introduced was "very suspect" and raised the distinct possibility that the bill will be declared constitutionally invalid.