Poll: Canadians overwhelmingly want First Nations financial transparency
Most Canadians believe Indigenous people should follow the same rules as everyone else, with over 80 per cent supporting public disclosure of First Nations’ spending.
Most Canadians believe Indigenous people should follow the same rules as everyone else, with over 80 per cent supporting public disclosure of First Nations’ spending.
An Angus Reid Institute survey found that 60 per cent of Canadians believe Indigenous people should abide by the same rules as the rest of Canadians, while the other 40 per cent said First Nations communities should be moving towards more independence.
The poll also found 82 per cent of respondents felt the federal government should reverse Liberal changes to auditing laws that removed the onus on First Nations to disclose how they use public funds.
Angus Reid surveyed 2,508 Canadian adults from July 24-29, asking about Indigenous status, treatment and privileges. The sample was weighted based on census data. A probability sample of the same size yields a 1.5 per cent margin of error 19 times out of 20.
In 2015, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government stopped enforcing the requirement for First Nations to publish their audited financial statements. Four-in-five, 82 per cent, of Canadians said they think First Nations, which are granted billions of dollars in public funds, should have to disclose their spending.
Seventy-two per cent of Indigenous respondents said First Nations bands should be accountable to the public.
Asked about their fundamental views on Indigenous status in Canada, 45 per cent of Canadians said there should be no special status granted to Indigenous people that other Canadians don’t have. The other 55 per cent said Indigenous people have an inherently unique status.
Despite significant pushback from wider Canada on the unique status given to Indigenous Peoples, 73% of survey respondents who identified as Indigenous believed they had an inherently unique status due to their ancestry.
Among all Canadians surveyed, 46% said they would prefer if Indigenous people integrated more into broader Canadian society, even at the expense of losing their own culture and traditions. The other 54%, however, said they would prefer Indigenous people strengthen their cultural identity over integration.
Indigenous respondents were more likely to support strengthening Indigenous self-identity over integration. Seventy-eight per cent of First Nations people said they prefer strengthening their culture and traditions, and 59% of Métis respondents said the same.
After years of the political class focusing more attention on “truth and reconciliation” with Indigenous communities, respondents were asked if they felt things were improving on that front.
The most popular answer among Canadians was that things were generally improving for Indigenous people, with 38% reporting a net positive direction. The next largest group, 31%, said conditions for Indigenous people have “stayed about the same.”
Answers differed by province.
Saskatchewan was the only province where more participants (38%) said things were getting worse than improving. Conversely, more than half of British Columbians said things were improving.
More Canadians said the federal government spends too much funding on First Nations, with 30% reporting the feds should cut back. Twenty-seven per cent, however, said the government gives too few taxpayer dollars to First Nations, and 21% said the feds spend just enough.
Manitobans and British Columbians were most likely to say the governments spends too much time and public funds on Indigenous issues, with 37% in both provinces.
Alternatively, 40% in Quebec believed the government ought to spend more on Indigenous issues, and 39% in Ontario said the same.
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Harper put Indigenous transparency rules in place.
One of the first things the idiot with the fetish for weird socks did was remove any semblance of accountability.
We have now spent unknown billions of dollars on the Indigenous types over a lot of decades.
The value for that money is basically been little to nothing and for the most part few, if any have any idea where those funds have gone although popular wisdom is that a lot of that never even made it close to Indigenous types. Bureaucrats yes... Politically well connected individuals and businesses.. YOU BET... Can you say, amongst others SNC just as one example.
Don't look to banker guy for any leadership let alone leadership on this one.
For that it will take that change in government that the fools in the "Elbows Up" crowd denied the country last time around.
Another foolish Trudeau action. The grassroots people want this accountability. When the chiefs and their family and friends take those funds and spend it for themselves, the ones who need it have to go without. Why are there still so many reserves without drinking water? Why are there so many in poor health? Why are the educational outcomes so poor on reserves? Where are the jobs that could be created by the Band not forthcoming?