By Bryan Eneas

PBCN membership raise concerns about financial statements

Jun 28, 2017 | 11:51 AM

Band members from the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation are raising concerns about the amount of dollars going towards salaries and expenses.

An email sent to paNOW contained documents which showed both the Chief and Council salaries and unelected senior officials along with a statement from “pbcnconcnerns2017.” The latter combined for a total salary of just over $1.782 million between 17 staff members, with “other remuneration” of roughly $1.042 million; $845,025 of which is categorized as expenses reimbursed.

“PBCN band members are in disarray and feeling some outrage as the bands Financially Audited Financial Statements (sic) from Price Waterhouse Coopers have surfaced in social media platforms,” the statement reads.

It goes on to say the concerns stem from a lack of consultation regarding the high salaries of elected leadership and band staff.

Lester Gardiner, a band member, received copies of the documents through email. He said he hoped to question leadership about the administration salary and expense documents during community meetings, which were cancelled.

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“How they have it written there, its money for services for something done,” Gardiner said. “What are they doing beyond the job they have to be entitled for more money?”

He said he wants to see more information than the consolidated audits which are currently provided to band members.

“It’s time to stop these consolidated audits and go community by community to say this is how much money is in this community, this is what money was spent there,” he said. “[Consolidated audits] are not giving the proper information to the people.”

Chief responds to posts

PBCN Chief Peter A. Beatty said he was quite surprised to find out the administrative salary documents were posted online.

His biggest concerns lie with the posting of senior administration salary and expenses as those are typically not disclosed to the general public. He’s unsure where the leak came from and band directors have voiced their concerns about their personal information being published. He said there could be legal rammifications for the person responsible for distributing the documents.

He said he’s okay with chief and council salaries being published as the documents get posted on Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada’s website, even though it is no longer mandatory to do so.

“We as a chief and council said we have nothing to be withholding,” Beatty said. “It doesn’t matter to us.”

He explained the planned meetings were cancelled due to a variety of reasons. From poor road conditions leading into Sandy Bay, to a scheduling conflict in Deschambault Lake as the gathering was accidently scheduled on National Aboriginal Day, the decision was made to ultimately postpone all community meetings. The gatherings will be rescheduled for August, according to the chief.

“We wanted to bring a unified message to the communities,” Beatty said. “Things change between [June] and August and we want to take the same message to our members.”

The meetings will provide members with an update from the program directors of the Cree Nation, along with an update on an ongoing legal matter between the band and SaskPower. Membership will have an opportunity to pose their questions at each meeting.

Bryan.Eneas@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @BryanEneas