APTN National News
OTTAWA-The Federal Court has ordered the Privy Council Office to either release internal emails between Aboriginal bureaucrats or better explain why the documents should be shrouded beneath the blanket of cabinet secrecy.
Winnipeg-based Tribal Wi-Chi-Way-Win Capital Corporation (TWCC) went to Federal Court last January seeking a judicial review of an Aboriginal Affairs decision to create a $15.5 million loan guarantee program for selected banks and credit unions to encourage lending to on-reserve businesses.
TWCC, an Aboriginal bank created by the federal government in 1993 to provide financing to on-reserve businesses, has claimed the department failed to consult Aboriginal lenders before creating the program.
The court action has since led to a legal tussle between TWCC and the PCO over 30 internal emails written by Aboriginal Affairs bureaucrats.
PCO has refused to hand over the documents arguing they are covered by cabinet confidence.
On Aug. 22, the Federal Court-appointed official managing the case ruled that the PCO had failed to make the case for keeping the emails secret, said TWCC’s lawyer Ken Muys.
The official, Roger Lafreniere, ordered the PCO to either submit the requested emails or present a better argument for keeping them secret by Oct. 1, said Muys.
“(Lafrenier) said that the Privy Council and cabinet are entitled to withhold disclosure of secret documents, but the court wasn’t convinced that (the emails) were properly described to be secret,” said Muys. “He gave them a choice and he did comment (that) he would be extraordinarily surprised if the emails are somehow secret documents.”
TWCC is trying to uncover the decision process that led to the creation of the program.
The Aboriginal Affairs department picked Assiniboine Credit Union, Desjardins Group, Business Development Bank of Canada, Affinity Credit Union, First Nations Bank, Servus Credit Union and VanCity Savings Credit Union to take part in the loan-loss reserve program.
Assiniboine Credit Union has since pulled out of the program saying it wasn’t working.
Alan Park, chief executive officer of TWCC, has said that the department was putting Aboriginal lenders in jeopardy by freezing them out of the program and giving mainstream lenders a “golden-brick road” into the on-reserve lending sector.
It remains unclear why the department didn’t include Aboriginal financing firms, called AFIs, in the program when the firms were created and designed to provide loans to on-reserve businesses which typically have to work harder to borrow money from banks.
Created 20 years ago with $200 million in seed capital, there are now 57 AFIs across the country and they have written about 36,000 loans worth over $1.4 billion.
TWCC was established in 1993 and has since offered more than $34 million in loans to 45 First Nations communities in Manitoba.
While it began with only three employees, it has 150 today
The Conservative Aboriginal affairs caucus sent a letter last year asking former Indian affairs minister Chuck Strahl to rethink the program.
