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Stepping Forward
CGA-Canada and the Aboriginal Financial Officers Association of Canada are encouraging youth to become business leaders in their communities.
FROM: JUL-AUG 2007 ISSUE | BY LAURA PRATT
If Racine Johnson were in charge of her town, Akwesasne, Ont., a Mohawk community along the St. Lawrence River, she would make a difference. Of that she is sure. Johnson would improve the local hospital. She would also increase job opportunities and develop more housing options for the 13,000 band members who live there. And she would encourage the creation of independent businesses among her people, whom, she says, have long struggles to find the resources and confidence to see their entrepreneurial pursuits through. "I would help them to make it happen," she says.
The 18-year-old Grade 12 student took the first step this past winter when her How I’d Make a Difference essay won her an invitation to the first annual Aboriginal Youth Financial Management Conference Awards as part of the Aboriginal Financial Officers Association (AFOA) of Canada conference in Vancouver in February. There Johnson met people who can help her advance her career plans. In fact, that kind of assistance is one of the basic tenets of AFOA, an Ottawa-based association formed to help Aboriginals govern their communities and organizations by enhancing their finance and management practices and skills.
First Steps
In the eight years since AFOA was launched, significant strides have been made in Aboriginal financial management in this country. Now more than ever, First Nations communities are empowered to make their own decisions and to demonstrate the accountability of their governments to their citizens and, in turn, from the federal government to First Nations. Thanks to the Federal First Nations Fiscal and Statistical Management Act, Aboriginals now have access to long-term private capital at preferred rates. This has inspired the construction of new roads, the repair of sewer systems, and the construction of new water lines in local communities.
Similar efforts are also unfolding at a provincial level. For example, British Columbia’s government has embarked on its “New Relationship” process, an undertaking resulting from an interest in reducing uncertainty, litigation, and conflict in that province’s financial management activities. The B.C. government meets with administrative representatives from First Nations communities with a view to developing constructive ways to deal with Aboriginal concerns based on openness, transparency, and collaboration that have as their foundation respect and recognition of Aboriginal rights and title.
That First Nations people be singled out with their own accounting designation is critical and long in coming, says Suzanne Seebach, director of programs and services at AFOA. “It’s cultural,” she says. After all, there are certain undeniable distinctions to be made between an Aboriginal community’s financial dealings and those of a non-First Nations municipality. A death in a band town, for example, is acknowledged with extreme gravity. An entire company will shut its doors in respect for the funeral and think nothing of closing down of the community in deference to this solemn event. In some communities, band administrations will close down to accommodate traditional hunting and gathering activities.
A Unique Designation
In conjunction with CGA-Canada, AFOA created the program that results in the Certified Aboriginal Financial Manager (CAFM) designation. Based on levels one to three of the CGA Program of Professional Studies, the CAFM designation enables individuals to enter directly into the fourth year of the CGA program. “It’s a great thing,” says Lynda Carson, vice-president of education and operational affairs with CGA-Canada. “We worked with AFOA on a task force over a number of years to see this initiative through. And it’s all been worth it.”
Indeed, says Cameron Mackenzie, director of professional services with CGA-Canada. “This is a very positive, progressive relationship. We anticipate that many CAFMs will carry on their studies to become CGAs.”
AFOA also offers seminars and workshops for members, professional development opportunities and networking events, along with workshops that are specifically targeted at First Nations administration issues. For instance, the association tackles the business of year-end audits with a practicum that acknowledges their differences from year-end audits outside of First Nations environments. “Quite often,” says Elona Ewing, CGA, vice-president of AFOA-BC, “we’ll go right into a community, talk to the chief in counsel and the senior administrative staff, and show them what reports and budgeting are all about in this realm. We spend some time together and they come to understand what their year-end financial reports should look like.”
Such attention to detail, says Ewing, has been instrumental in changing the face of financial management for professionals working in Aboriginal communities. “Now they have a recognized organization that they can go to for issues of financial management. They have a network now. That makes all the difference in the world.”
All told, AFOA represents approximately 1,250 Canadian Aboriginals involved in financial management in their communities. Its members come from every corner of Canada - from Skidegate on Haida Gwaii in the West; to Glenwood, Newfoundland, in the East; to Carcross, Yukon, in the North. What binds these far-flung AFOA members is their commitment to financial and management excellence. AFOA members are leaders in their communities and organizations. The organization is the only one in Canada that focuses on the capacity development and day-to-day needs of Aboriginal professionals who are working in all areas of finance and management. And it is the first visible manifestation of the CGA-Canada/Assembly of First Nations Accountability Project, which was formed in 1998 to provide the foundation for implementing First Nations self-government and to establish a new fiscal relationship between First Nations and Canada.
Future Directions
But among the most significant achievements of this still-fledgling organization is the creation of an arm that recognizes the role the next generation has to play in the future of effective financial management in Canada’s Aboriginal communities. Research has demonstrated that relatively few Aboriginal youth have ventured into the financial management profession over the last five years, and that a concentrated push is required to provide them with the initiative necessary to pursue a career in finance or administration. “AFOA is trying to build capacity,” says Carson. “There’s a shortage of qualified financial managers in the Aboriginal community. We all have to work together to motivate young people to pursue a career in financial management. We’re building the expertise, but also building capacity.”
To that end, AFOA is developing scholarship programs available to students wishing to pursue studies leading to CAFM designation and to cover costs of AFOA courses and attendance at various conferences. In addition, in collaboration with Grant Thornton LLP, AFOA launched its Aboriginal Youth and Student arm last year. The crowning event of this initiative was the Aboriginal Youth Financial Management and Conference Awards.
Grades 11 and 12 Aboriginal youth who have been academically successful and who want to pursue post-secondary education in the areas of finance and/or management were invited to submit a 1,500-word essay on: “If I were in charge of my community, what would I do to make a difference?” The three winners travelled to Vancouver in late February to rub elbows with the more than 700 senior Aboriginal leaders in attendance, all of whom moved about the conference, invigorating attendant youth and encouraging young people to enter this field. “We presented how exciting the career is and what possibilities there are for people interested in getting in to financial management,” says Carson. “We wanted to make it clear that it’s not about being a bean counter in the corner.”
Indeed, says Ewing, “To be able to say to someone not that, ‘You are an accountant,’ but that ‘You are an Aboriginal accountant,’ is significant. It’s all about growing the opportunities for recognition that are so needed and welcome out there. This partnership between CGA-Canada and AFOA is magic.”
Along with Johnson, Jordan Scott, an 18-year-old Grade 11 student at Winnipeg’s Children of the Earth High School, benefitted from such enchantment. Scott was one of the trio of victors (the third was Justin Stevens, from Eskasoni First Nation in Nova Scotia) thrilled to be part of this inaugural event. An Ojibway native, Scott says the experience of attending the conference helped “cement the idea of what I want to do in the future.” He’s keen to get into a career in financial management because it’s a vital part of business, he says, and that’s where he believes the solution for a struggling community lies. What’s more, the financial sector is attractive to his sensibilities, he says, because he envisions a future in which he operates his own business. “And I can’t do it without knowing about this stuff,” he says.
In his essay, Scott addressed the problems of drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, and the crime rate. He believes the secret to rectifying these inherent community issues lies in focusing a community’s attention on its children. “It’s all a matter of reaching the community through its children,” he says. “If we can teach the kids, we can teach everybody.”
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