Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation (PBCN) Chief Peter Beatty earned a six-figure income last year, documents reveal.
Audited financial statements released under a new federal transparency law show Beatty made $109,570 and claimed $90,401 in expenses for year ended March 31, 2014.
Clayton Sewap, the PBCN band councillor for Denare Beach, earned $64,000 and claimed $74,196 in expenses.
Sewap’s salary was the second highest of all PBCN councillors. Darren Linklater, a Pelican Narrows councillor, had both the highest salary and expenses at $64,208 and $141,913 respectively.
The documents show PBCN recorded expenses of $89.91 million for the last fiscal year. Major costs included $33.18 million for salaries, wages and benefits, $13.41 million for social assistance and $6.69 million for child and family services.
PBCN enjoyed a surplus of $13.69 million for the year, nearly four times as much as in 2012-13.
Revenue for the latest fiscal year totalled $103.60 million. The lion’s share of this funding, $80.53 million, came from the federal government departments of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, and Health Canada.
Equity in earnings of PBCN’s business arm, Peter Ballantyne Developments Limited Partnership, totalled $5.57 million.
As of March 31, 2014, PBCN had an accumulated surplus of $73.62 million, up from $59.93 million the previous year.
PBCN was supposed to post the audited statements online by Nov. 27, 2014, but was late in filing. Beatty told The StarPhoenix the documents weren’t ready in time.
PBCN includes some or all of eight communities: Amisk Lake (Denare Beach), Pelican Narrows, Deschambault Lake, Sandy Bay, Sturgeon Landing, Southend, Kinoosao and Prince Albert.
Elsewhere, Chief Arlen Dumas of Mathias Colomb Cree Nation in Pukatawagan earned $80,000 and claimed $30,918 in expenses for the year ended March 31, 2014.
Salaries for the 10 Mathias Colomb band councillors ranged from $6,000 to $82,500. Travel expenses were $7,112 at the low end and $39,776 on the high end.
Complete audited financial statements for First Nations are available online by Googling “First Nations Financial Transparency Act.”
