Federal budget tabs $5 billion for Indigenous programs

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This article was published 27/02/2018 (2946 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The federal Liberals allocated Tuesday an additional $5 billion for programs serving Indigenous people, but had sparse details on whether the funding would match their pledges for child welfare and housing in Manitoba.

In January 2016, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal found Ottawa was racially discriminating against First Nations children by providing them less funding in Child and Family Services than what other children receive.

Some two years later, Tuesday’s federal budget earmarks a $1.4-billion boost to First Nations Child and Family Services, spread out roughly equally among the coming five years. But the funding isn’t specified by province, and it’s unclear whether the amount includes back-claims for the past two years.

Earlier this month, the tribunal issued a fourth non-compliance order against the Liberal government, which prompted Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott to announce Ottawa would pay for all federal shortfalls going back to the tribunal finding, from January 2016 to February 2018.

It’s unclear how much the government estimates that will cost.

A report leaked to the Free Press last month, completed by the officials tasked with estimating the funding gap, pegged it at $104 million in Manitoba — roughly $12,814.42 per child — with Ottawa and the province roughly splitting that 26 per cent shortfall.

Nationally, the funding will bump up annual First Nations CFS spending to $1.1228 billion next year from $892.3 million this year, rising to $1.1797 billion by 2023. That falls roughly in-line with the 26 per cent gap outlined in the leaked report.

Manitoba has one of the world’s highest rates of child-welfare cases, jumping by three-quarters in the past decade to more than 10,000. As of spring 2016, 87 of them were First Nations or Métis, despite Indigenous people making up just 17 per cent of Manitoba’s population.

Philpott has flagged CFS as a key priority for the government, and hosted a national “emergency meeting” on the issue last month, though the provinces did not reach an agreement on basic principles at that meeting.

The budget shows no response to calls by CFS agencies and advocates to compel Manitoba to stop its clawback of federal child benefits for children in care, which the province currently absorbs instead of passing onto parents or holding in post-secondary education trusts. (The province has said it’s considering shelving that policy.)

The government argues funding announced Tuesday for many programs, such as health and education, would help undercut the issues that bring Indigenous families to the attention of CFS agents.

That includes a $1.5 billion for housing, which was mostly pledged in the last budget but refined Tuesday to specify $600 million over three years for First Nations reserves, and $500 million over 10 years for the Métis Nation.

Those housing funds are largely front-loaded, unlike the general National Housing Strategy, which largely kicks in during the latter half of the decade. But it’s unclear whether these investments will meet the dire housing needs across Manitoba, and the Liberals have no hard goal for when they hope to end housing crises.

Manitoba leads the country in housing units owned by band councils, and the 2016 census found many are falling apart. Some 45 per cent of households in Peguis First Nation (220 kilometres north of Winnipeg) reported major disrepair, while 42 per cent of homes in Cross Lake (530 km north of Winnipeg) were not suitable for the number people living inside.

Métis people have also secured $10 million for post-secondary education in the looming fiscal year, and $6 million over five years to gather health data and form some sort of strategy. Métis people largely fall under provincial programs.

To combat drinking-water advisories on reserves, the budget adds an extra $172.6 million to the $1.8 billion pledged two years prior. The Liberals have promised to end 91 long-term drinking water advisories by March 2021; five of those are in Manitoba.

Tuesday’s budget renames an existing jobs strategy, which will now be called the Indigenous Skills and Employment Training Program, and given roughly a fourth new funding. The program funds job centres and skills training, and will now total $2 billion over the next five years.

The program will have dedicated funding for four groups: First Nations, Métis, Inuit and notably “an urban/non-affiliated stream,” which could have particular importance for Winnipeg. That class of people would include people who don’t hold Indian status and live off-reserve, who often fall outside formal programs that administer dental and mental-health benefits.

Concerns around these “non-status Indians” led to a dramatic showdown in Parliament last spring, when Manitoba senators pushed the federal Liberals to widen the Indian Act lineage provisions, which prevented women who marry non-indigenous men from giving their descendants Indian status.

A 2016 Supreme Court ruling — known as the Daniels decision — ruled Ottawa has a fiduciary duty to “non-status Indians” and Métis people, though it’s unclear how much programming the federal government is expected to administer.

Previous budgets touched on Indigenous children’s education, though Tuesday’s budget did not announce any increases. About half the increases to funding are to make up for existing obligations, from on-reserve nursing stations to psychological help for survivors of residential schools.

The budget also allocates $51.4 million over next two years for self-determination “discussion tables,” in reference to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s pledge this month to extend more autonomy to Indigenous nations.

It also includes $235 million in new funding for First Nations “health transformation,” which is the gradual devolution of federal dollars and responsibility to tribal councils and similar governments. That may help Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak’s bid to get First Nations in northern Manitoba in charge of their own health programming.

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Finance Minister Bill Morneau told reporters Tuesday the funding was aimed at improving Indigenous lives, as well as the national economy.

He cited a study last fall by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards, which estimated Canada has $36 billion of GDP at stake, if Indigenous quality-of-life metrics don’t catch up to the general population in the next two decades.

Indigenous people made up just 3.5 per cent of Canada’s working-age population in 2011, and Statistics Canada believes that number that will almost double by 2036. In Manitoba, Indigenous people are set to account for 41 per cent of labour-force growth, even when accounting for high levels of immigration.

The budget also included measures for Inuit people, though few live permanently in Manitoba.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca