Kwantlen Financial Report Explainer

Earlier this week, Band Members did a question and answer session with Melva Bigswan of the Piikani Nation. Ms Bigswan has worked in Indigenous finances for many years, and has served as a financial controller for bands in Alberta and BC. In the video above, Ms Bigswan went over the following documents:

• Kwantlen audited financial statement (2021-2022) [produced by former Band council and auditors]

• Kwantlen remuneration (2021-2022) [produced by former Band council and auditors]

• Consolidated statement on financial position (2017-2022) [produced by Melva Bigswan]

Key points

• The band is cash-positive - it has $16 million dollars, once debts are taken into consideration.

  • However this number remains very low for the region. With $16,044,024, this puts Kwantlen’s resources below:

    • Katzie — $16,139,578

    • Matsqui — $22,338,581

    • Squamish — $149,237,206

    • Tsleil-Waututh — $171,300,304

    • Musqueam — $201,691,404

• Kwantlen’s $16 million dollar position is largely the result of a $20 million+ dollar payment from BC Hydro in 2019, and an unexplained ‘Trade Invoice’ on Kwantlen’s books, listed at more than $3 million dollars.

• Kwantlen’s finances are poorly managed:

  • Financial reports are late every year, often by months

    • Late reports means that the band may miss out on federal government supports, and so be forced to borrow money until reports are in and supports can flow. Borrowing money is expensive.

      • The band has a line-of-credit account with more that $600,000 drawn from it, resulting in interest payments likely in the range of $15,000

• Once submitted, financial reports often have significant errors, and so must be corrected the following year. In other words, the band does not know how much it spends, and the annual audits cannot be relied upon to be accurate until another year has passed.

• Kwantlen’s income from corporations appears to be very low. Kwantlen’s corporations are reported as part of the audited financial statement. The statement lists lease income, and then it lists merchandise sales, other income, and contracting income. It’s believed that these three items represent the revenue of Kwantlen’s corporations. In total they add up to $6,449,813. However this is before expenses. Kwantlen lists $5,415,487 in expenses for economic development - it’s believed that this is where the SQ budgets are incorporated. The balance then, showing the amount of money Kwantlen’s corporations made after factoring in the cost of running those corporations is: $1,034,326. Which - for this region - is very low, and on par with what an average gas station would make.

• Where Kwantlen does excel is in handing out honorariums, and paying for meetings. Since the Governance Reform process began in 2019, Marilyn Gabriel’s gang has spent $1,270,101 on meetings and honorariums. That is equal to $18,407.26 for every single Kwantlen band member on reserve. And all of that has been spent since the petition to remove her, back in 2019. That total does not include spending since April 1st of last year. That means that all of Kwantlen’s corporations have to work for more than 4 months out of every year to earn enough to pay for Marilyn’s honorariums and meetings budget.