Chiefs from the Mohawk Council of Kanesatake outside Montreal are calling for the resignation of their grand chief after he attempted to place the community under third-party management.
“We don’t want that for Kanesatake,” said Chief Brant Etienne. “We’ve been there before. It took us a long time and a lot of hard work to get out of it.”
According to the federal government, third-party management typically takes place when a First Nation defaults on its payments and essentially takes control of the band’s finances.
“The decision to place a First Nation into third-party funding agreement management means that Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) appoints a third-party funding agreement manager (TPFAM) to manage a recipient’s funding agreement,” an explanation on the federal government’s webpage said. “The TPFAM works with the recipient to remedy the underlying issues that caused the need for third-party funding agreement management.”
In July 2023, Grand Chief Victor Bonspille asked Indigenous Services to put the community under third party management.
“It was a hard decision,” Bonspille said. “It wasn’t something that that, that I just decided to do. It took some contemplating. [It] was the only way that I seen that I could stop them from micromanaging every department including and especially finances is to request that from the federal government.”
Indigenous services said no.
According to the department, the last time Kanesatake was placed under third party management was in 2003 when the community was in a precarious financial situation. It ended in 2006.
