Individual First Nations band members have a right to access band documents regarding how their community’s money is being spent.

That’s according to a new decision from the Federal Court.

I partnered with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation almost four years ago to find out what happened to missing money in my community’s trust fund. We just won the first round of that fight in Federal Court.

“If the purpose of the [Access to Information Act] is to enhance ‘accountability’ and ‘transparency,’ ‘promote an open and democratic society,’ and ‘enable public debate,’ the governance relationship between the Applicant and Frog Lake First Nation cannot be ignored,” reasoned the Federal Court.

Basic financial transparency is key for accountability. Without knowing how much money is being spent and where, it’s impossible to hold local leaders accountable.

Frog Lake First Nation’s trust fund, which holds revenues from natural resources located on band lands, totaled about $102 million in 2013. Less than $9 million remained by 2024. No answers were given when questions were raised about what happened to the money.

Our leaders are supposed to serve the people, but that doesn’t always happen. We are supposed to be a community that helps each other out. But a community shouldn’t be hiding this type of information from each other.

Most Canadians can call the auditor general to investigate questions about money in their communities. I can’t. Indigenous activists don’t have an auditor general to call for answers from First Nations communities.

To try to find answers another way, the CTF and I filed access to information requests with the federal government to get the documents. We looked to Ottawa to help us out when local leaders were failing their duties. But federal officials refused to hand the information over.  

We knew that Ottawa had these documents, but instead of siding with an activist trying to better their community, it left us in the dark.

Ottawa failed to support grassroots band members trying to keep their chief and council accountable. So, we went to court and we won. The Federal Court ruled that the federal government was not legally permitted to withhold the band council records and upheld the principle that financial records relating to the management of trust funds must be transparent to band members.

At its core, this victory reinforces the principle that both the federal government and band leadership are accountable to individual band members when it comes to the management of community money.

This is one of the most significant transparency court rulings for First Nations in recent years. It sends a clear message that accountability to band members is not optional but a legal requirement. Many communities rely on trust funds built from resource revenues. This decision ensures that band members can verify how those funds are being used.

This court case is a huge victory for my community and other communities across the country, but First Nations activists shouldn’t have to lawyer up every time they have questions about how their community’s money is being spent. Transparency and accountability should be the default, not the exception.

And court fights only get us so far. That’s because the government has now appealed the court decision and is pushing to stop the release of the documents. That’s why First Nation’s communities like mine need consistent protections to ensure financial transparency.

The auditor general is a cornerstone of accountability. The federal auditor general raised the alarm about tens of millions of taxpayers’ dollars being wasted in Ottawa’s green slush fund and caught over $4.6 billion in CERB overpayments.

But the federal auditor general won’t look at questions in First Nations communities. Neither will provincial auditors general. We have nobody to call.

The federal government and the Assembly of First Nations commissioned a report that says, “A First Nations Auditor General would provide many benefits, both today and in the future.”

It’s time to make that policy a reality. First Nations activists need an auditor general specifically for their communities that they can call when they have questions about how money is being spent.

Increasing First Nations financial transparency means that we will have healthier First Nations communities. And healthier First Nations means a healthier Canada. 

Hans McCarthy is a band member of Frog Lake First Nation