Good afternoon, esteemed members of the standing committee.
I received a letter just yesterday from the chiefs of the Lesser Slave Lake Indian Regional Council in support of my submissions to this table and the proposed amendments.
First, thank you for the invitation to appear before this committee.
I believe the Sawridge First Nation is in a position to make a significant contribution to your deliberations, based on our actual experience. I have a 20-minute presentation, but I will respect your wish to have a five-minute presentation at this time. I present to you the balance of my presentation so that it may be translated into the French language and distributed to the members of the committee.
We are opposed to the passage of this bill because we believe it will be counterproductive to your goal to increase accountability and transparency in first nations governance. If the bill is to be passed, we have suggested amendments that might improve it somewhat. We are suggesting that Parliament encourage the government to take a different path leading to improved governance.
Sawridge First Nation is a part of Treaty No. 8, as well as the original negotiators and signatories to Treaty No. 8. In addition to being an elected chief of the first nation, I'm also Grand Chief of Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta, which includes all of northern Alberta.
Pursuant to our right of self-government, the Sawridge First Nation is governed by its own constitution. It was adopted after several years of very hard work by the members themselves. The constitution was adopted by a referendum in which 65% of all adult members participated. Over 95% voted in favour of adopting the constitution.
Legislatively, we are governed by a general assembly. Every adult member of the first nation is a member of the legislature. The committee has been sent a copy of the business before the assembly in recent months, so you will see our approach to good governance.
Our executive branch is our chief and council. It reports to the assembly and answers questions raised by the members.
Our constitution calls for an elected audit and compensation committee, which makes recommendations to the assembly regarding compensation and benefits of all officials and staff of the first nation. Those are set by the assembly.
It calls for council to table a budget for approval. Financial reports are also reported. All financial records are available for review by any member.
We have a governance act. It has conflict of interest provisions. As an example, I had to provide to our assembly disclosure that a company had offered me two very good hockey tickets. With my having made that disclosure, the assembly passed a resolution telling me to enjoy the game.