I'll start with the question about benefits to leaders. I want to stress again that we have never once said that we believe all leaders on reserves are filling their pockets with money and hiding the information from their band members—far from it.
In fact, I met with a chief from a northern community in Manitoba. He wanted to meet with me. We sat down and we talked. He said, “Here's my pay information.” He had no problem with disclosing it. He is open with his community and so forth. I think putting this information online would help leaders like him and many others who are very open and accountable, because it would remove that shadow that has been cast on many aboriginal leaders. I think that's one way how it would help them.
For band members, of course, it would let them know more about how funds are being spent in their community. It's the same thing that the average Canadian living off reserve wants: they want to know how their tax dollars are being spent.
It will help the grassroots understand what their leadership is doing with the money. If they see that their leaders are all making exorbitant sums of money, then they'll think twice about re-electing them. We've seen that in a couple of cases now since we've exposed what has been happening. In two communities in the Maritimes—I believe both were in Nova Scotia—the Annapolis Valley First Nation and the Glooscap reserve, once the salaries were disclosed, there was widespread change in terms of the elected officials there. I think that's one way it can help the grassroots.
In terms of Canadians, as I mentioned before, we've talked with a lot of taxpayers and people off reserve who are saying that they want to know how funds are being spent in reserve communities, because they've heard of all kinds of examples of misuse and abuse over the years. They have heard from people like Phyllis and from many others who come forward and cry out for help. They want to know how public funds are being spent and which communities are doing good things and how they can support them.