OTTAWA—The Conservative government slammed Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau on Monday over his musings about repealing a new transparency law for First Nations communities.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt says Trudeau was choosing the side of First Nations leaders who would keep “basic financial information hidden from their communities and from Canadian taxpayers.”

The legislation requires elected First Nations leaders to disclose details of salaries and financial information about their operations.

“We put this legislation in place to empower community members and ensure that they are informed of their community’s financial situation,” Valcourt said in a statement.

“The fact that Justin Trudeau would give opponents of transparency and accountability an easy way out is an affront to the community members and taxpayers this act is intended to serve.”

Since a July 29 deadline passed for posting their financial information, about half of the nearly 600 First Nations communities affected by the law, have declined to submit their reports. Most communities that released their information revealed modest salaries for elected officials, with a few exceptions, including Kwikwetlem First Nation Chief Ron Giesbrecht, who earned more than $900,000 last year.

First Nations leaders have publicly mused about blockades or other tactics such as legal challenges to protest the bill after Valcourt threatened to withhold federal funding for communities that don’t submit their reports within 120 days.

Trudeau told the Vancouver Sun in an interview published Monday that he wouldn’t keep the legislation, and would instead work with First Nations leaders to create a “proper accountability act” that discloses excessive pay, while respecting the communities.

Liberal MP and aboriginal affairs critic Carolyn Bennett (St. Paul’s) noted that when her party was in government, it signed an agreement with First Nations, the Kelowna Accord, that promoted accountability through the creation of a special auditor general for aboriginal communities.

“There was a plan that had been designed that this government tore up and then replaced with this bad bill that nobody liked,” said Bennett.

Chief Sharon Stinson Henry, who leads the Rama First Nation in Ontario, said her community has complied with the legislation but may challenge it in court. She explained that mandatory disclosure of its financial records for private businesses such as its Casino Rama resort, creates an “unequal playing field” when it’s negotiating contracts with other companies.

“It is neither proper nor respectful of Canada’s relationship with First Nations to legislate the production of own source business financials, which are for the information of our own citizens (or) shareholders only,” said Stinson Henry, noting that detailed audited and unaudited reports are shared with her citizens semi-annually.

NDP aboriginal affairs critic Jean Crowder (Nanaimo-Cowichan) said everyone agrees transparency is important, provided that all elected leaders are facing the same scrutiny.

“First Nations chiefs and councils are being held to a different standard than even federal politicians are held to,” said the British Columbia MP. “So they’re having to reveal stuff that the rest of us don’t have to reveal.”

For example, she noted federal politicians are required to submit other business interests outside of their jobs as elected officials, leaving it up to a conflict of interest commissioner to decide what gets published.

But she said there were no guidelines, under the new federal law, about whether income generated from private and non-government sources, should be disclosed for First Nations leaders.

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Crowder added that the government should consult with First Nations to fix the problem.

“I haven’t heard any First Nations tell me that they like this legislation,” said Crowder. “So I would assume that either people would want it amended or would want it repealed and a better piece of legislation put in place. But I can’t presume what those outcomes would be until you do the consultations.”

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