In 2009, when the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) called for a new law that would require Canada’s aboriginal reserves to post their chief and council’s pay online, many snickered.

“Good luck,” we were told pessimistically by several skeptics.

They just didn’t believe the federal government could be convinced to table a bill requiring aboriginal chiefs and councillors on reserves to disclose their pay to the public.

After all, some chiefs and councillors are known for threatening blockades. The skeptics doubted we could we get Ottawa to muster up the courage to table a bill that would ruffle many chiefs’ feathers; even though politicians off reserve all have to routinely disclose their pay.

Thankfully, the skeptics were wrong.

After a three-year push to require the annual disclosure of chiefs and councillors’ pay, the government not only tabled a bill to do precisely what we urged, it recently became law. Yes, as of this year, annual audited statements from each reserve will be disclosed to the public on the federal government’s web site. The same site will also disclose pay information for each chief and councillor in Canada.

Make no mistake, many chiefs and councilors are already transparent. For them the law won’t really change much. However, in communities like the Squamish First Nation, where band officials have tried to suggest they are “prohibited by law” from releasing details on the chief’s salary, it’ll be a welcome improvement.

So how did we go from a situation three years ago where no politician in Ottawa would say ‘boo’ about sky-high chief and council pay to actually passing a disclosure law for every reserve in Canada?

The answer is simple – brave men and women on reserves and people living off reserve speaking out.

After exposing the high salaries on the Peguis reserve pay (thanks to whistleblower Phyllis Sutherland) back in 2009, we seemed to hit a tipping point. Many grassroots aboriginal people living on other reserves came forward to either leak documents from their communities or speak out publicly about the lack of transparency and accountability on their reserves.

For example, when the CTF held a press conference in Winnipeg to talk about improving transparency on reserves in 2010, an 83-year old aboriginal elder drove for two hours the night before and then slept in his car in order to be there for the morning event. He later described how elders in his community pooled some money together to pay for his gas because it was so important for them to have a voice pushing for improved accountability and transparency.

As the grassroots kept speaking out, so did people off reserve as well. Comments online and on radio talk shows were overwhelmingly in favour of improved transparency. While the Harper government got the message it’s too bad opposition parties voted against such a common sense law.

As the dust settles on this victory, we’ll repeat something we’ve said from the beginning. This legislation won’t solve all the problems on reserves; the whole situation is complex and many of the policy ideas out there are divisive.

But it will shine a light on where the money is going. Thumbs up to those who spoke out and to the Harper government for listening.

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