The FNFTA is going to be part of the comprehensive federal law and policy review that's on. That's one of the laws that are not consistent with the nation-to-nation approach.
We say that we're accountable. Chiefs and councils are audited already. Those audits are available. They have to be presented, in a lot of cases, to their first nation citizens on a regular basis.
It's almost as though if it's not accountable at Little Black Bear, what do I do as an individual citizen? We have an election every three years, so I'm going to back and make it an issue. If Chief Cathy McLeod is not being accountable, then I'm going to hold her to account. There are politics on every reserve—that's how it is.
I say that rather than having an imposed piece of legislation, whether it be federal or provincial, a lot of first nations are starting to be proactive in developing their own financial transparency act, setting up their own treasury board, setting their own financial.... The problem is that you have 634. Some are really advanced; others aren't. Focus on the ones that aren't and start looking at capacity for those ones, because there are good tools and processes and mechanisms in place across Canada. Look at those good examples. How can they be replicated?
You have 58 different nations. The Cree are different from the Mi'kmaq, from the Dene, from the Haida. They're all different. Some have a treaty relationship with the crown or federal fiduciary trust obligations, but it's the Indian Act that governs all 634, unless you have a separate piece of legislation and you're out of it. We all want to get out of it, no question. It's going to take some time.
We're even looking at developing our own institutions. You have the Auditor General of Canada, and you've seen those reports and how they point to the need to revamp the department at INAC, no question. What about establishing our own auditor general so that we have our own institutions in place that can help support accountability, transparency, but under first nations' jurisdiction?
That's it.