Mr. Speaker, I am glad that the games have ceased for a few minutes.
Accountability requires transparency. Not all first nations leaders are willing to release information to the community about how public funds are spent. Some choose also not to divulge this information, which results in their members wondering how much chiefs and councillors receive in remuneration.
First nations members have every right to expect a higher standard. Indeed, they deserve the same measure of accountability and transparency enjoyed by other Canadians, whose assurance of access to information about their government's activities is enshrined in legislation.
As the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development has noted in his remarks to this chamber, this government has ensured that Canadians have ready access to the information they need to judge our actions as parliamentarians. The first legislation we brought to the House back in 2006 was the Federal Accountability Act, which increased public oversight into how Canadian dollars are spent.
Not only do we publish public records about how every dollar is spent at the federal level each year, we also disclose the salaries of members of Parliament through the Parliament of Canada Act and the Salaries Act. These two pieces of legislation also lay out a transparent formula to calculate salaries and to provide the publication of details of both the regular incomes and special allowances added to salaries of MPs who take on extra responsibilities. Disclosure of other income and expense information is also treated under conflict of interest and ethics legislation.
The Government of Canada is not the only jurisdiction that requires the disclosure of audited consolidated financial statements and salaries.
My hon. colleagues from Newfoundland and Labrador will attest that their province has a financial accountability act that commits the provincial legislature to table public accounts each year. The province's transparency and accountability act stipulates that the ministers must account for government entities for which they are responsible each year in an annual report that includes an audited consolidated financial statement that then compares with the funds approved by the legislature's assembly. The Newfoundland and Labrador municipal act also requires that local community leaders make their financial statements and auditor's reports available to the public.
Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick have similar laws. Each has a financial administration act that obliges the two provinces respective legislatures to account for public spending from the previous fiscal year and both have municipal acts that require the specifications of the types of information that must be made available to the public.
Likewise, Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta all have legislation governing the duty of municipalities to prepare and publish annual financial statements.
Territorial governments also uphold this high standard. The Government of the Northwest Territories makes its annual financial statements readily available on its website. The Government of Nunavut's financial administration act requires the government to publicly account for its expenditures for the previous year by laying the public accounts before the legislative assembly.
The precise wording of the transparency and accountability legislation obviously varies from province to province, but the fact remains that almost all Canadian taxpayers have a guarantee in law that they can access the basic financial information they require in order to hold their elected representatives accountable for their decisions and actions.
Many governments also disclose the salaries paid to elected officials, from premiers to the legislative backbenchers to mayors and town councillors. Federal employee rates of pay are posted on the Treasury Board of Canada site. The salaries of members of many provincial legislatures are set by legislation and made available to the general public. Disclosure of the income and expense information is often treated under conflict of interest or ethics legislation.
Nova Scotia's act respecting the public disclosure of compensation in the public sector applies to the public sector as well as not-for-profit organizations receiving over $500,000 in public funding. These groups are required to post remuneration information on their websites for employees receiving compensation of $100,000 or more. If they do not have a website, they need to make the information available on a publicly accessible website.
Similarly, in Manitoba the public sector compensation disclosure act requires public sector bodies to disclose to the public the amount of compensation it pays annually to each of its officers as well as employees whose salaries are $50,000 or more. Along with this legislation, the Manitoba legislative assembly act sets out that the remuneration allowances and the retirement benefits of members be established by the commissioner. Furthermore, the regulations require that members post expense reports on the legislative assembly website.
In addition to various provincial and territorial legislation, a number of municipalities have passed bylaws requiring the release of information about the remuneration of mayors and councillors as a best practice.
Clearly, what is being asked of first nations leaders is nothing more than what is expected of their counterparts in other jurisdictions across our great country. In fact, in some respects, this legislation demands less. Bill C-27 would focus only on the disclosure of remuneration of elected officials of first nations governments. I remind the House that self-governing first nations, under the terms of their self-government agreements—
