Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) sent a demand letter to the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN), seeking documentation for millions in ineligible funding.

ISC determined that FSIN owes over $28 million in funds following years of investigation into the organization that represents 74 Saskatchewan First Nations, according to CJME.

The spending in question spanned five years, from 2019 to 2024, and included between $4.8 million and $23.9 million in unsupported or illegible expenses, mostly tied to COVID-related funding.

In addition, other expenses included $1.2 million on fleet vehicles with zero paperwork, $1.9 million in administrative costs that don't add up, and hundreds of thousands funnelled to a former employee's consulting gig.

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FSIN also used $808,000 to build a new office building, and $410,795 on ‘internal charges and cost allocations,’ as broken down by CJME.

Rob Louie from the Band Members Alliance and Advocacy Association (BMAAAC) was able to obtain an unredacted copy of the letter sent, expressing that he was most “troubled by the way FSIN chiefs have downplayed the significance of the audit’s findings.”

“I found it troubling because if this happened in, let’s just say, a non-native or a white organization or the Government of Saskatchewan, heads would roll. You know, law enforcement would be brought in. There’d be a shakeup and a turnover,” he is quoted as saying.

“This is very heart-wrenching because we have a lot of our people that are homeless on the streets, who will never see a used vehicle, let alone a new one,” Louie said on the over one million spent on fleet vehicles.

Louie is calling for accountability and real consequences, not just a set of blanket recommendations that ISC said would follow alongside “potential recoveries.”

FSIN has until April 2 to explain or produce the paperwork and has yet to comment publicly.