A member of the Onion Lake Cree Nation who has fought to have the band’s basic financial information published, can finally claim success.
The documents show that Chief Wallace Fox made $123,000 dollars in 2015 and received a raise of $27,692 for a total of $150,692. The average income on the Onion Lake Cree Nation is $17, 528.
Despite The First Nations Financial Transparency Act which requires bands to publish consolidated financial statements as well as the salaries and expenses for chief and council, the Onion Lake Cree Nation had never before provided the information.
In an news release, with Charmaine Stick, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation also indicates there were some questionable investments that failed. The investments were written down to a value of a dollar each and the timing and the amounts correlate to Chief Fox’s decision to invest in a tech company. The CTF says those investments, while written down to a value of $1 each, combined, equated to $1,404,795.
Charmaine Stick saw multiple wins in court and Monday announced what she found. She says now that they have the numbers, the Band’s leaders will have to start answering tough questions.