Tangible Capital Assets

The public sector accounting board's PS 3150 presents Canadian municipalities, including First Nations, with a significant change to accounting for Tangible Capital Assets. This new reporting standard will require First Nations to inventory, track and report on the value of their assets. Some of these include; Land, Buildings, Machinery & Equipment, Vehicles, Engineered Structures (Roads, Water Treatment).

M'Chigeeng First Nation is well under way to determining the value of these items. However, complying with this new reporting standard does come with its challenges. Many of these assets were acquired long ago, therefore, actual cost documents may or may not exist. Too add to that, complex network systems such as those for water and wastewater treatment, consist of a number of components that are either underground or not visible.

The key benefit to having First Nations adopt Tangible Capital Asset accounting is to obtain better information for decision making.