Following the money
Skeptical band members call for audit of $1-M payment
By: Mary Agnes Welch
9/01/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 45
PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Archives- Roseau River Chief Terry Nelson says a $1-million payment from a pipeline company was spent lobbying for oil and gas rights and court expenses.
A special $1-million payment to Treaty One First Nations from a pipeline company has all but disappeared in just over three months, with much of the money going to chiefs and band councillors.
Roseau River Chief Terry Nelson said the cash was spent lobbying for oil and gas rights and fighting the pipeline in court, but some band members are skeptical and want an audit done on the fund and the expenditures.
"As far as I know, that money was supposed to benefit the communities," said Phyllis Sutherland, a Peguis band member who has written repeatedly to Ottawa asking for a forensic audit of her band's finances. "It seems to me it's not benefiting average band members. It's just benefiting the people in control."
According to bank statements covering a three-month period, $1 million was deposited in a Treaty One account on Oct. 22, 2008 by Enbridge, the Calgary-based pipeline company building an oil pipeline through southern Manitoba to the United States. By the end of January 2009, about $180,000 remained.
The seven Treaty One bands, including Peguis, Roseau River, Brokenhead and Long Plain, challenged the Enbridge pipeline and other similar projects in court last year, but lost. As part of the consultations and the legal wrangling, Enbridge agreed to help fund First Nations affected by the pipeline so they could be properly represented. That's what the $1 million was for, said Nelson.
"Before we got the money from Enbridge, we pumped a lot of our own money into Treaty One," said Nelson. "We had to deal with Enbridge -- it's an $800-million company that was going through our land without any benefit to our communities."
Bank statements, along with more than 160 cancelled cheques, show that a large chunk of the $1 million -- almost $300,000 -- was indeed spent on lawyers hired to fight the pipeline project in federal court.
Another $118,000 was spent on honorariums and travel expenses for chiefs, councillors and a handful of band members, some of whom travelled to Washington, D.C., a year ago to lobby the new Obama administration for more control over oil and mineral rights.
According the bank records, the trip cost nearly $60,000.
Lucrative honorariums and travel per diems paid to chiefs and councillors were central to the furor that erupted last month over the hefty salaries paid to Peguis Chief Glenn Hudson and his four councillors.
Documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation showed Hudson made $174,230 in the fiscal year ending in March, including $48,200 in unspecified "other remuneration," much of which came from honorariums.
But Hudson made far less than his four councillors, one of whom made $251,000 and charged an additional $59,000 in travel expenses in the 2008-2009 fiscal year.
Hudson and band Coun. Darlene Bird were paid a combined $7,500 from the Enbridge fund for travel and honorariums. It's not clear if that money was included in the salary disclosure figures obtained by the CTF.
Nelson was paid about $13,000 in the three- month period from the Enbridge money.
Officials with Enbridge said, for confidentiality reasons, they couldn't discuss exactly what the $1 million was for, but said the company did provide bands with help to level the playing field, as well as separate funds for training and economic development projects.
Critics, including Sutherland and other Peguis members, say the way chiefs, councillors and favoured band members are paid is mired in secrecy and waste.
But Nelson said the leaked bank statements appear to be part of an orchestrated attempt to discredit the chiefs. And he said his salary of $47,000 is paid from Roseau River's development ventures like the gas bar in Rosser.
"I want to be clear I don't get $200,000 in government money," he said.
maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca
Where the $1 million went:
(Oct. 22, 2008 to Jan. 30, 2009)
Honorariums, travel expenses: $118,000
-includes $13,000 to Roseau River Chief Terry Nelson
-includes $59,000 spent on a trip to Washington, D.C., in January 2009
Legal fees: $298,000
Professional fees: $112,000
Security, public relations, video services, and services provided by company named Four Arrows
Disbursements and repayments to bands: $216,000
-includes $50,000 to Highway Six, the gas bar and smoke shop owned by Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation
-includes $4,600 paid to South Beach Casino, operated by Brokenhead
-Salaries: $63,000
approximately three staff members
Other: $12,000
Balance as of Jan 30, 2009: $181,000
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 9, 2010 A3
source:http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/following-the-money-81060192.html
Skeptical band members call for audit of $1-M payment
By: Mary Agnes Welch
9/01/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 45
PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Archives- Roseau River Chief Terry Nelson says a $1-million payment from a pipeline company was spent lobbying for oil and gas rights and court expenses.
A special $1-million payment to Treaty One First Nations from a pipeline company has all but disappeared in just over three months, with much of the money going to chiefs and band councillors.
Roseau River Chief Terry Nelson said the cash was spent lobbying for oil and gas rights and fighting the pipeline in court, but some band members are skeptical and want an audit done on the fund and the expenditures.
"As far as I know, that money was supposed to benefit the communities," said Phyllis Sutherland, a Peguis band member who has written repeatedly to Ottawa asking for a forensic audit of her band's finances. "It seems to me it's not benefiting average band members. It's just benefiting the people in control."
According to bank statements covering a three-month period, $1 million was deposited in a Treaty One account on Oct. 22, 2008 by Enbridge, the Calgary-based pipeline company building an oil pipeline through southern Manitoba to the United States. By the end of January 2009, about $180,000 remained.
The seven Treaty One bands, including Peguis, Roseau River, Brokenhead and Long Plain, challenged the Enbridge pipeline and other similar projects in court last year, but lost. As part of the consultations and the legal wrangling, Enbridge agreed to help fund First Nations affected by the pipeline so they could be properly represented. That's what the $1 million was for, said Nelson.
"Before we got the money from Enbridge, we pumped a lot of our own money into Treaty One," said Nelson. "We had to deal with Enbridge -- it's an $800-million company that was going through our land without any benefit to our communities."
Bank statements, along with more than 160 cancelled cheques, show that a large chunk of the $1 million -- almost $300,000 -- was indeed spent on lawyers hired to fight the pipeline project in federal court.
Another $118,000 was spent on honorariums and travel expenses for chiefs, councillors and a handful of band members, some of whom travelled to Washington, D.C., a year ago to lobby the new Obama administration for more control over oil and mineral rights.
According the bank records, the trip cost nearly $60,000.
Lucrative honorariums and travel per diems paid to chiefs and councillors were central to the furor that erupted last month over the hefty salaries paid to Peguis Chief Glenn Hudson and his four councillors.
Documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation showed Hudson made $174,230 in the fiscal year ending in March, including $48,200 in unspecified "other remuneration," much of which came from honorariums.
But Hudson made far less than his four councillors, one of whom made $251,000 and charged an additional $59,000 in travel expenses in the 2008-2009 fiscal year.
Hudson and band Coun. Darlene Bird were paid a combined $7,500 from the Enbridge fund for travel and honorariums. It's not clear if that money was included in the salary disclosure figures obtained by the CTF.
Nelson was paid about $13,000 in the three- month period from the Enbridge money.
Officials with Enbridge said, for confidentiality reasons, they couldn't discuss exactly what the $1 million was for, but said the company did provide bands with help to level the playing field, as well as separate funds for training and economic development projects.
Critics, including Sutherland and other Peguis members, say the way chiefs, councillors and favoured band members are paid is mired in secrecy and waste.
But Nelson said the leaked bank statements appear to be part of an orchestrated attempt to discredit the chiefs. And he said his salary of $47,000 is paid from Roseau River's development ventures like the gas bar in Rosser.
"I want to be clear I don't get $200,000 in government money," he said.
maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca
Where the $1 million went:
(Oct. 22, 2008 to Jan. 30, 2009)
Honorariums, travel expenses: $118,000
-includes $13,000 to Roseau River Chief Terry Nelson
-includes $59,000 spent on a trip to Washington, D.C., in January 2009
Legal fees: $298,000
Professional fees: $112,000
Security, public relations, video services, and services provided by company named Four Arrows
Disbursements and repayments to bands: $216,000
-includes $50,000 to Highway Six, the gas bar and smoke shop owned by Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation
-includes $4,600 paid to South Beach Casino, operated by Brokenhead
-Salaries: $63,000
approximately three staff members
Other: $12,000
Balance as of Jan 30, 2009: $181,000
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 9, 2010 A3
source:http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/following-the-money-81060192.html
