Article content continued

Elected leaders and top officials billed $950,000 for travel and meetings, more than twice what they spent in the prior 12-month period.

It’s unclear from the financial statements where some $34 million went, as it appears in an undefined line item called “other expenses.”

Acting band administrator Ken Christensen said the nation, like other Alberta businesses, has been the victim of a faltering economy.

“Energy prices have dropped significantly over the past few years, so we’re no longer bringing in the royalties we did in previous years.” Christensen said.

“We could try and cut expenses … but we determined it was unrealistic under the circumstances.”

While 2011 figures from the federal government pegged the average income of band members on the reserve west of Calgary at less than $15,000, their 15 elected leaders took home tax-free salaries that averaged nearly 10 times that amount — about $149,000 — while racking up another $69,000 each on average in expenses.

Among the nation’s three chiefs, the highest paid was Chief Ernest Wesley with a pay packet of $241,493 and expenses of $97,171.

That salary is the before-tax equivalent of $377,000 for a leadership role in a nation with roughly 5,200 members.

By comparison, Prime Minister Stephen Harper last year was paid $50,000 less than that —$327,400 — as the leader of a country with a population of 35.7 million.

Wesley and two other chiefs were unavailable for comment, but Christensen rejected the comparison to Harper’s salary as “bogus” because Stoney leaders are not eligible for a pension like prime ministers when they leave office.