44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 1, 2023
- 03:33:33 p.m.
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Thank you for the opportunity to be here today.
As you said, my name is Harold Calla. I'm the executive chair of the First Nations Financial Management Board and a member of the Squamish nation. For those who don't know, I've been the executive chair of the First Nations Financial Management Board since its inception some 15 years ago. Prior to that, I spent many years championing the passage of the First Nations Fiscal Management Act. It took three attempts. I hope today's amendments to the act have a much speedier passage and are through the House and the Senate by the end of June.
These amendments build on the achievements of Canada's most successful piece of indigenous-led legislation. A huge part of this success lies in the FMA's optionality for first nations that choose, on an individual basis by band council resolution, to be scheduled to the act. There are no financial enticements to do so, just an individual nation's desire to have good financial management that is recognized to meet international standards, to be able to borrow from the First Nations Finance Authority or to levy local revenues to fund first nations government services.
With the passage of these amendments, nations will be able to choose expert advice and support for building and maintaining infrastructure. The optionality of this legislation also provides evidence of its success. Nearly 350 first nations have chosen, one by one, to be scheduled to the FMA. That is over 60% of the first nations that are part of the Indian Act.
The vast majority of these first nations work with the First Nations Financial Management Board. Like the other FMA institutions, the FMB is indigenous-led, accountable to a board that is primarily indigenous and has a staff that is mostly indigenous. We are an indigenous-driven solution that supports communities in getting the results an Ottawa-driven approach never could.
The FMA is a success and we need to build on it. That is what these amendments are about today. For the FMB, the amendments will enable us to work with modern-day treaties and tribal councils, something communities have been asking for for years. The amendments will mean we can build on the statistical work we have been doing so that chiefs and councils have better facts to inform their decision-making. The amendments bring some of our operations into the modern day, such as allowing us to hold our AGM virtually, when appropriate.
The FMB supports nations in developing financial administration laws to enshrine transparency and good governance. We provide capacity support so nations can bring their laws into practice. We award financial performance certifications to qualified first nations that meet the standards, so they can borrow from the FNFA. When we award a financial management system certification, first nations can use this to show to their community and business partners that their financial practices meet high standards internationally—standards most municipalities in Canada actually don't meet.
Over the years, our functions at FMB have grown in response to nations' needs. We lead the way in providing the capacity supports first nations need to get out and stay out of third party management. We provide opinions on whether or not first nations have met standards for the eligibility of 10-year grants. We did the research on the size of the first nations economy, which allowed necessary supports to be distributed to first nations government owned businesses during the pandemic. We are now piloting a program to provide backup supports, such as bookkeeping for rural and remote communities that have trouble attracting and retaining staff.
The nations that work with the FMB enjoy both improved economic development and greater trust in their communities. Our records and research show that first nations that have achieved their FMS certification have seen their own-source revenue grow significantly and enjoy higher community well-being index scores.
Before I end my comments, I want to note that first nations were heavily engaged in the consultation on these amendments to the act. Every single first nation currently scheduled to the act was contacted by FMB staff and invited to an across-the-country town hall on the amendments. The responses we heard at the town hall were overwhelmingly positive.
In particular, there was tremendous support for the centrepiece of these amendments, the creation of a First Nations Infrastructure Institute.
We did the same thing for modern-day treaties and tribal councils. These amendments will allow us to work with them.
In short, indigenous institutions are providing solutions and support to first nations that the current federal system never could. More and more first nations are choosing to work with these institutions. Nations are asking us to do more, and we are prepared to respond.
Pass these amendments so that we can continue down the path of options that actually work for nations.
Thank you.
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- 04:15:08 p.m.
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It's Harold. If I may, I will start.
I look at the legislation as a living piece of legislation. It's always going to be amended to reflect the current circumstances of the day. We've been working on these particular amendments for quite some time. Did we get everything we wanted? We never get everything we want, Lori, but we got a lot of what we wanted. We're happy with what we got and want to see it come into place. We understand and respect that there is a commitment for ongoing dialogue on how you might improve this legislation, expand its scope and reach all corners of the indigenous community in Canada. We look forward to those opportunities.
I think what we've proven is that the concept we developed works. We now have this number of first nations participating. There's a lot of money being collected in local revenues now, through the tax commission. Ernie talks about $1.8 billion. All of these things have made a dramatic impact in communities, in terms of community infrastructure and the buildings they have.
We've now realized, through the process, that we need to expand the reach to first nations organizations, non-profits and tribal councils, because that's what they wanted. We identified—to get the bill moving and started—that it would be Indian Act bands. We agreed to that. However, we now understand the demand is much more significant than that, and we're prepared to respond to that.
Yes, we want to be welcomed back at some point, hopefully, in the near future to consider further amendments to this act, as the circumstances demand, but we're happy with what we have today.
Thank you.
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- 04:22:35 p.m.
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I think that housing can play a major role in economic reconciliation, but it has to become more than a program. It has to become a business activity. If you're going to own a home, you generally have to care for it and pay for it, and that's difficult to do if you don't have an economy in your community.
Part of the strategy here is to look at how we create the infrastructure, how we create the housing and the other supply chain issues that are involved in a housing portfolio to support the capacity development of our individuals and train them in the trades so they will have employment. I think that's a critical piece of what we need. Sometimes we just look at the house, the stick frame construction, and say that's what housing is. Well, it's the supply chain that delivers that stick frame that really needs to be looked at. We need to participate in that whole value chain so that there can be permanent employment.
Eventually, one would like to think that you're going to build all the houses, so I think we need to be in a position where we are looking at these things from the perspective of their economic value and how you maintain that. The infrastructure is a big piece, obviously, but it is about gaining meaningful employment on a long-term basis to be able to maintain the homes in good standing.
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- 04:24:13 p.m.
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It's very much so. If program funding was going to work, it would have worked by now.
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- 04:27:53 p.m.
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Thank you for that question.
We are undertaking a pilot project at the moment, which we're calling “support services”. It will address those issues, because what we experience, particularly in the default management program that has become so successful, is many northern or remote communities having difficulty attracting and retaining staff. They just can't do it. You can't do it 634 times, either. You have to create a mechanism where you create the accountability and transparency that will be required.
We now have an initial pilot project with some first nations communities to road-test this concept of a shared services platform, where the back-office functions are taken care of. It's not making decisions for them, but rather allowing for the competency that comes from being able to hire professional staff who may be centrally located. What we've learned through the pandemic is that you don't have to work in any specific location. I think that has greatly helped us in our view of what we'll be able to accomplish with this program: providing functions that can't be filled in some communities because of their locations.
These are very important first steps for us to do. I give the government credit. They didn't wait for this legislation to have us start this pilot project. We're starting it now and it will hopefully grow into a much larger non-profit.
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- 04:38:09 p.m.
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It's Harold.
Grant, I'm assuming that you're in the room. I'm going to punt this one to you.
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- 04:54:18 p.m.
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If I might, I want to talk about those communities that were in default management. Many of them were in third party management for as long as 20 or 25 years. They got involved with the financial management board. We entered into a pilot program with the department.
We had some pilot project firms or communities that got themselves certified by the financial management board. They regained their confidence. They weren't losing the money that they were losing previously to a third party manager. They were investing in their communities. One of those communities I think is now eligible to borrow from the First Nations Finance Authority.
More importantly, what it did is that it allowed that community to regain the dignity and respect it needed to have for itself. I think that's because we weren't punitive in our approach. We went in there to help. We requested and the government agreed that they would not be disqualified for discretionary funding, that the third party management fees would be paid from somewhere else and that all of those people would report to a first nation institution called the First Nation Financial Management Board, and not the department. Those were big steps that I think really helped to bring communities along and to have in sight a line to opportunity.
One of the biggest challenges we face is that everything we do probably requires a change in policy or procedure somewhere in government. We can do all of these things, but if we're not prepared to change the core of the problem, then it's really handicapping us. We will recover some of those things, but I think we have to realize that we're looking at systemic change going forward.
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- 05:20:38 p.m.
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Yes. He's described exactly what we're all looking for. It has taken five years to get to this point. It took three times for this legislation to be introduced originally to get it passed. We can't wait with that time frame anymore. These are non-partisan issues. They should get everyone's support. The state of the indigenous community in this country is something that we should all be wanting to improve as quickly as possible.
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