Steve is a Certified General Accountant and a Certified Aboriginal Financial Manager. In the 15 years he has been working with Indigenous groups, he has become expert in government funding and reporting issues, segregated funding and fund accounting, program expense allocations, and meeting specific requirements for reporting to various levels of government agencies.

Steve is recognized as a subject matter expert for business accounting and system applications. He has developed and implemented policies and controls to increase accountability and improve the governance of not-for-profit and Indigenous organizations. Steve serves a number of organizations as financial advisor and as part-time Chief Financial Officer. He also provides training on financial and budgetary issues and developed a course for the Aboriginal Financial Officers Association, to help financial officers understand financial statements.

He provides advice and support to organizations and their staff, because not-for-profit accounting is difficult—the objective is not to make a profit but to avoid either surplus or deficit. “Mentoring,” Steve said, “is the part of my job I enjoy most.”

Working with Indigenous communities has taken Steve to many interesting places and introduced him to many interesting people. One of his favourite engagements was actually outside his mandate. He was in a northern community on an assignment. In his spare time he helped a hotel and wellness centre that catered to people and families in need, because “I really liked the people and what they were doing.”