First Nations Financial Management Board

The FMB is one of the institutions established by the First Nations Fiscal Management Act (FMA) in 2005. It is a First Nations-led body, and participation is voluntary. A Nation chooses to schedule under the Act and then works with the FMB toward certification.

The Board does two main things. First, it reviews and approves a Nation’s Financial Administration Law, the local law that sets out how the community manages public money. Second, it issues two kinds of certificate:

• Financial Management System (FMS) Certification, which confirms the Nation’s financial systems, controls, and governance meet the FMB standard.
• Financial Performance (FP) Certification, which is based on audited financial statements and measures the Nation’s financial results against set ratios.

The FMB also provides advisory and capacity support to help communities strengthen how they administer finances. It is a standards and certification body, not a lender and not a tax authority.

For most Nations, the practical reason to pursue FMB certification is access to capital. Financial Performance Certification from the FMB is what qualifies a Nation to become a borrowing member of the First Nations Finance Authority, the body that pools member borrowing and issues bonds to fund infrastructure and economic development.

So the sequence usually runs in one direction. A Nation passes its Financial Administration Law, earns FMB certification off the strength of its audited statements and systems, then approaches the Finance Authority for long-term financing at rates a single community could rarely get alone. Certification is also a signal in its own right. It tells lenders, funders, and partners that an independent body has reviewed the Nation’s financial management and found it sound.

The part communities underestimate is the audited-statement history. Financial Performance Certification is not a single-year snapshot. The FMB looks at consecutive years of clean, ratio-tested results, so the groundwork has to start well before the application does.

We sit on the preparation side of certification, not the certifying side. Our Indigenous and Government Advisory team works with a Nation’s finance staff and Council to get the underlying financial function to the standard the FMB will test.

That work is concrete. We help draft or tighten the Financial Administration Law and the supporting policies, build month-end and reporting routines that hold up year over year, and prepare financial statements under Public Sector Accounting Standards (PSAS), the framework most First Nations governments report under. Because Treewalk does not provide audit or attest services, we are not the auditor signing the statements. We are the team that gets the books, controls, and records ready so the audit runs clean and the FMB has something to certify.

The people doing this hold the right background. David Dick, CPA, directs our Indigenous Services, Government and Sustainability work. Joshua Buffalo, CPA, a member of Samson Cree Nation and the first CPA from his Band, manages our Indigenous Advisory practice and works in PSAS day to day. Diane Janzen, our Managing Director of Indigenous and Government Advisory Services, has spent more than 10 years working with and for First Nations across British Columbia, including as a Chief Administrative Officer. In 2026 we submitted an expression of interest to Simpcw First Nation for full accounting and advisory support.

Three institutions were built under the same Act, and people mix them up.

The FMB is not the First Nations Finance Authority. The Board certifies; the Authority lends. A Nation earns FMB certification, then borrows from the Finance Authority.

The FMB is not the First Nations Tax Commission. Property taxation on reserve, including the review and approval of local tax laws, sits with the Tax Commission, not the Board.

And the FMB is not an auditor. It does not perform the annual financial statement audit. It relies on the Nation’s audited statements, prepared by the community and signed off by an independent auditor, as an input to Financial Performance Certification.