Canada appoints First Nations member to Bank of Canada board

Canada appoints First Nations member to Bank of Canada board

OTTAWA (Reuters) – The Canadian government filled three Bank of Canada board vacancies on Thursday with finance veterans including Ernie Daniels, likely the first First Nations member on the central banks board, a bank spokesperson said.

The Bank of Canada‘s board selects its governor and provides general oversight of the management and administration of the institution. The board’s 12 independent directors are appointed by the government for three-year terms.

Daniels and the other two appointees – David Dominy and Shelley Williams – “bring many years of accounting, capital markets, and financial management from across industries and sectors,” Canadas finance ministry said in a statement.

Daniels, who is from the Salt River First Nation in Canadas Northwest Territories, has over 35 years of senior financial management experience and has been chief executive of First Nations Finance Authority, a financial non-profit, since 2012.

“To the best of our knowledge” Daniels is the first board member to hail from a First Nation in the banks almost 90-year history, a spokesperson said.

Williams is an accountant and has held senior positions at large multinational public companies, while Dominy was most recently the CEO of FIRMA Foreign Exchange Corp., the finance ministry said.