"Fontaine gets whopping raise while AFN cuts corners"

A $40,000 a year raise for Assembly of First Nations (AFN) leader Phil Fontaine is "ridiculous" says a Six Nations Councillor who says "there's no way only 30 chiefs should be allowed to do that (approve a raise)."

Councillor David Green said he couldn't believe Fontaine was getting on almost 50 per cent increase in his salary that was bumped up from $85,000 to $125,000 at the end of an assembly meeting in Toronto last week.

"Can you image what the rest of that staff up there must be getting. Hell, we'd catch it down here if we even raised our honorariums by $10 a meeting. What's he doing!"

The Assembly of First Nations, which represents Canada's Indian chiefs, voted last week to raise

Fontaine's salary from $85,000 to $125,000 at the conclusion of their 19th annual general assembly. But some chiefs and councillors are questioning the raise because of both its size and the small percentage of chiefs who actually endorsed it.

About 30 of the 200 chiefs registered were on hand when the salary vote was held in the final hours of the assembly's annual convention.

Six Nations Councillor Terry General attended the general assembly but said he wasn't there when the raise was approved. "I heard about it afterwards."

General said he couldn't comment on the raise. "I don't what he does. Maybe he's worth it."

Councillor Stephen Bomberry said he believed "that position should have that level of pay."

Bomberry said, if the position were in the private sector, the pay would be more. "If we equate it to the private sector, it would be low, but we expect our people to work for nothing."

Councillor Les Sowden said he doesn't understand how it was approved. "They didn't have a quorum. How'd they do it. I don't know if someone in that position should be paid that much or not."

Sowden said he left at noon. "The concern was are they going to have a quorum. What I find more distressing is Georges Erasmus is getting $150,000 to administer the Healing Foundation, why? If you look at two jobs, a person in the position Phil (Fontaine) is in has more impact. The salaries should go the other way. In fact why Erasmus getting paid at all. I think a good chunk of that healing money is going to administer this foundation."

A national healing foundation is in the midst of being established under a board of directors chaired by Georges Erasmus.

Fontaine has distanced himself from the raise, saying he had never asked for one.

But he said some chiefs felt the salary needed to be re-visited because it had been frozen for more than a decade.

There is also no pension plan.

Fontaine does not pay federal tax on his salary, which means the $125,000 salary is equivalent to a taxable income of about $240,000.

And that means Fontaine now earns more than the Prime Minister of Canada.

Jean Chretien earns an annual salary of $157,000, compared to $134,000 for cabinet ministers and $85,000 in salaries and expenses for Members of Parliament.

Meanwhile AFN regional chiefs earn an estimated $60,000 annually, including Ontario Chief Tom Bressette, who has been in that office for a year. Sources told Turtle Island News the regional chiefs have been pressuring for a raise but a raise would have put them on the same footing with Fontaine.