Funding reinstated but Chief says it should have been done sooner

January
7, 2016

Onion
Lake Cree Nation may have gotten an early Christmas present from the Liberal
government but it wasn’t timely enough.

“They
didn’t act quickly. The decision was in October. They waited almost 90 days,”
said Onion Lake Cree Nation Chief Wallace Fox referring to a federal court
decision in which the judge ruled that the federal government could not force
Onion Lake Cree Nation or Sawridge First Nation – and four other bands -  to file their financial statements in
accordance to the First Nations Financial Transparency Act. “If they acted
quickly they would have done it in November.”

On
Dec. 21 the federal government released about $1 million in funding that the
previous Conservative government had held back because OLCN had not complied
with the FNFTA. On Dec. 18, Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn
Bennett issued a statement saying she had “directed my department to cease
all discretionary compliance measures related to the First Nations Financial Transparency Act and
to reinstate funding withheld from First Nations under these measures.”

She also
said the Liberal government was suspending court action against any First
Nation that had not complied with FNFTA.

Now OLCN
has its delayed funding as well as a ministerial loan guarantee from the
Canadian Mortgage Housing Corp. to go ahead with 15 new homes. But the band is
out some hefty interest it incurred when it put interim financing in place.

“Whether
they’re going to honour and recognize those costs (we’ll see),” said Fox, who
noted that correspondence is being sent to INAC asking for reimbursement.

While Fox
sees the government’s action as a positive step, he says his hope for a changed
relationship with the Liberals is tempered.

“In my 30
years in leadership, my observation of all of this is unless they change … the
former government’s appointed bureaucrats, the senior bureaucrats especially in
Indian Affairs, things will not change. We’re experiencing that right now. Some
of the correspondence, we believe, is not getting to the minister because it’s
being critiqued or scrutinized by senior bureaucrats in headquarters,” said Fox.

He says
his allegation is based on lack of response, including “common courtesy” of a
simple acknowledgement that correspondence has been received and is being
reviewed by the minister.  

Bennett
said in her December statement that the federal government would work with First
Nations’ leadership and organizations to improve accountability and
transparency.

She also
noted that she and Jody Raybould-Wilson, minister of justice and attorney
general, would review existing laws in partnership and consultation with First
Nations, Inuit and the Metis Nation to “ensure that the Crown is fully
executing its obligations in accordance with its constitutional and
international obligations.”