Dear editor: The Stoney chiefs earn a base salary of $125,000 each year or $500,000 over a four-year term and $375,000 over a three-year term. Add to that expenses that include month-end travel and undefined expenses which average $100,000 per year and you will find that Chief Ernest Wesley has earned $900,000 in wages and expenses as chief of the Wesley Band since his election in 2010.
Dear editor:
The Stoney chiefs earn a base salary of $125,000 each year or $500,000 over a four-year term and $375,000 over a three-year term.
Add to that expenses that include month-end travel and undefined expenses which average $100,000 per year and you will find that Chief Ernest Wesley has earned $900,000 in wages and expenses as chief of the Wesley Band since his election in 2010.
The Wesley Band is the only band in Morley to have a four-year term of office. Chiefs from the Bearspaw and Chiniki Bands, which have three-year terms, will earn $675,000 over a three-year period.
As a member of the Stoney Nation, I find these salaries to be excessive. When you consider that a single person on income support receives just $261 each month in core benefits or $3,132 over a one-year period the divide becomes apparent. More importantly, the Stoney chiefs are being paid with capital or band funds, while Joe Nakoda is being paid with federal dollars.
The Cochrane Eagle reported that Stoney leaders had earned over $2.7 million between April 1, 2013 and March 31, 2014. That is 40 per cent of capital income earned in the 2013-14 fiscal year, which according to Stoney Tribal Administration, was $6.7 million. This is income earned through natural gas royalties and band-owned enterprises. In this context, it is evident that the Stoney Tribal Council is receiving a significant portion of band funds - $2.7 million between 15 leaders.
First Nations leaders naturally have responded to the First Nations Transparency Act as a paternalistic imposition on sovereign Nations.
However, one has to remember that traditional leadership does not call for leaders taking the best cut. Rather, traditional leaders would take the best cuts of any kill and divide it amongst the people.
The last time the Stoney Tribal Council voted to reduce chief and council salaries was in 1997 when leaders took a 33 per cent pay cut to avoid job losses. At that time, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada had to step in to curtail increasing deficits. Imagine what kinds of jobs could be made available if only our leaders would take a pay cut and make available $891,000 (33 per cent); there would be less people asking for handouts for one thing.
First Nations leaders have a responsibility to their band members. There are grassroots people who recognize that there has to be changes in terms of accountability and transparency.
However, when issues are discussed, media outlets and those with a right-wing agenda tend to attack all First Nations people. As a result, many are unable to address what is a real problem. Consider for example the Cochrane Eagle's reference to Chief Ron Giesbrecht of the 80-member Kwikwetlam First Nation in B.C., who earned in excess of $1.6 million, $800,000 of that was a bonus earned as the economic development officer for his community. Not all facts were presented. As a result it is always a gamble for those who want change to stand up and be heard.
As a First Nations person living on the Stoney reserve, I feel that it is time to speak out and state unequivocally that greed was not part of our culture. I am aware that abject poverty and unsafe living conditions are a reality. There are children who go to sleep crying because they are hungry.
There are people living in dilapidated houses with bare floors. Then you have the chief's houses, which compared to most houses, are palaces.
That the Stoney Chiefs take over $200,000 a year is not acceptable, but ultimately, it is a result of colonization.
Travelling in Africa on two occasions in my youth, I saw firsthand the immense suffering in developing countries. Visiting the palace of a paramount chief in Kokofu Ashanti region in 1998, I questioned (to myself) how this man could live so opulently while outside a child is dying of starvation. Inside his palace was a life-size cut out of Michael Jackson and various images of Western culture; a clear desire to achieve Western status.
First Nations leaders are not that different; many aspire to ‘achieve' white status and forget the people. It is a colonial mentality that needs to be challenged.
The issue is not black and white or brown and white as it were.
It is an issue of colonization and the effects of this process.
Trent Fox
