News

Since the signature of a 2016 Memorandum of Understanding, the Government of Canada and the Assembly of First Nations have been working together to develop the proposed elements of a new fiscal relationship between First Nations and the Government of Canada.

As part of this effort, a Joint Advisory Committee on Fiscal Relations has been tasked with providing advice to the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations and the Minister of Indigenous Services on a new fiscal relationship between First Nations and Canada. This Committee recently released an interim report that includes a recommendation to establish a First Nations Auditor General.

The June 2019 report, Honouring our Ancestors by Trailblazing a Path to the Future, highlights the importance of impartial oversight mechanisms, such as auditors general, to promote trust in institutions and de-politicize relationships. Accordingly, the Committee

“recommends that a First Nations Auditor General be established to provide independent, objective and professional advice and assurance for First Nations institutions, First Nations governments that opt-in and the processes supporting implementation of statutory transfers.”

The Committee’s vision is that, at first, a national First Nations Auditor General with a performance auditing mandate would be created, with the possibility that regional Auditors Generals could be established later on.

We are pleased to have contributed our research, through our June 2018 publication Establishing a First Nations Auditor General, to this initiative, and we look forward to continuing our engagement in this important dialogue in the future.