Nearly six in ten First Nations failed federal financial transparency requirements in 2024-25, according to a Fraser Institute study, as senators pressed Ottawa over its decade-long suspension of enforcement.
The study found just 41 per cent of First Nations had publicly available financial reports, while Indigenous Services Canada received reports from only 45 per cent of 578 non-self-governing First Nations as of March 31.
As first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter, the figures followed an April 22 Senate hearing where Quebec Senator Clément Gignac pressed officials over enforcement of the First Nations Financial Transparency Act.
“I believe this law is still in effect, even if you do not enforce it,” Gignac said.
The 2013 Act requires covered First Nations to disclose audited financial statements and chief and council pay within 120 days of fiscal year-end. Ottawa suspended discretionary enforcement measures in 2015, but the law remains in force.
During the hearing, Gignac pressed Indigenous Services Canada chief financial officer Richard Goodyear over whether the department was compelling First Nations to disclose their financial records.
Goodyear explained that the department publishes financial statements when communities submit them.
“You can’t post anything if you don’t receive anything,” Gignac responded.
“What we receive, we publish,” Goodyear said.
“What you receive, you publish, but you hardly receive any of them,” Gignac replied.
Ontario Senator Sandra Pupatello also questioned financial accountability as federal spending on Indigenous programs continues to grow.
“Because there is so much more money that we are spending, we need to be sure that the public is confident in how everyone is spending it,” Pupatello said.
According to the federal government’s 2026-27 Main Estimates, Indigenous Services Canada plans to spend $24.1 billion, while Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada has another $11.9 billion in planned expenditures.
Together, the departments account for approximately $36 billion in planned spending.
Indigenous Services Canada cited auditing challenges in remote communities and funding to offset costs. All 578 non-self-governing First Nations must submit annual audited statements under federal funding agreements.
The department’s 45 per cent figure measures reports received, while the Fraser Institute’s 41 per cent finding concerns compliance with public disclosure requirements.
Indigenous Services Canada previously reported compliance with the Act fell from 99 per cent in 2013-14 to 64 per cent in 2019-20, before the Fraser Institute reported a further decline to 41 per cent in 2024-25.
The transparency dispute has also reached Federal Court.
Frog Lake First Nation member Hans McCarthy sought federal records on trust fund withdrawals, including chief and council salaries and expenses.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, which backed McCarthy, said the trust fund shrank from $102 million in 2013 to under $9 million in 2024. The court made no finding of financial wrongdoing.
After Indigenous Services Canada refused to release the resolutions, citing privacy and confidential third-party information provisions, McCarthy challenged the decision.
In its November 20, 2025 ruling, McCarthy v. Canada (Indigenous Services), 2025 FC 1843, the Federal Court rejected the department’s grounds for withholding the records and ordered disclosure within 30 days, subject to specified redactions.
The court returned the question of disclosing individual remuneration amounts to the department for reconsideration.
Gignac raised the ruling during the Senate hearing, questioning whether the department had complied.
“Did you comply with this decision?” he asked. “Do you intend to reconsider this to finally implement the 2013 Financial Transparency Act?”
Goodyear did not directly answer whether the department had complied, instead explaining its existing reporting practices.
Fraser Institute study co-author Tom Flanagan argued that Canadians need greater transparency to assess federal spending.
“Canadians need to understand the magnitude of Ottawa’s Indigenous spending in recent years if they’re ever to properly assess what that additional spending is achieving in terms of results for Indigenous people,” Flanagan said.
A drop from 99 per cent compliance in 2013-14 to 41 per cent in 2024-25 is a steep slide for a law that technically never stopped being in force. Gignac's exchange with Goodyear captures the problem pretty well, since publishing whatever arrives means very little when most reports never arrive. With roughly $36 billion in planned spending across the two departments, the people with the most to gain from enforcement are probably band members themselves. Even with the court making no finding of wrongdoing, a Frog Lake trust fund shrinking from $102 million to under $9 million is exactly the kind of story the 2013 Act was written to surface. Interesting to see whether the Senate pressure turns into anything concrete before the next Main Estimates, or whether Ottawa quietly keeps the 2015 suspension in place.