Manitoba First Nations leaders are calling for an immediate vote on legislation that would remove the second-generation cutoff to entitlement status before the House of Commons breaks for the summer Friday.
“Parliament is running out of time … to decide whether to finally end one of the most discriminatory provisions that remains in the Indian Act,” Grand Chief Kyra Wilson of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said at a news conference in downtown Winnipeg on Tuesday.
“No child should lose recognition because of who their parent or grandparent has married or decided to have children with.”
Bill S-2 was introduced in the Senate on May 29, 2025 as an amendment to address remaining inequities in the Indian Act.
The proposed legislation would end the second-generation cutoff, which was added to the Indian Act in 1985. The cutoff prevents First Nations children from claiming status if they come from two consecutive generations of at least one parent having “non-Indian” status.
The bill would also ensure entitlement to registration for people with a family history of enfranchisement. That is where the “Indian” status of many First Nations people and their future descendants was removed or lost as the result of federal legislation.
If passed, the bill would have the opportunity to immediately restore status to 3,500 people, the office of federal Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty said in an email to CBC News.
First Nations people with status under the Indian Act have access to programs, benefits and services. They include tax benefits and exemptions, post-secondary student support, access to health programs and more.
Eliminating the second-generation cutoff is about much more than access to benefits, Grand Chief Garrison Settee of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak said. It’s about ending legislation that continues to harm the identity of First Nations peoples, he said at the news conference.
Grand Chief Garrison Settee of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak says the number of people with First Nations status will decrease over time unless the cutoff ends. (Justin Fraser/CBC)
“If we allow this to continue, seven generations down the road, will there be any treaty people left in this nation?” Settee asked. “Will there be any treaty people left in this country?”
“The time of somebody sitting in a cubicle in Ottawa deciding who is Indigenous has got to stop.”
Wilson says her own daughter asks her why she doesn’t have status.
“The day she was born, I did submit an application for status, and Canada denied that registration for my daughter,” Wilson said.
The grand chief says this was because someone in her family lineage signed a Métis scrip.
Billy Morin, the federal Conservative critic for Indigenous Services, says the relationship does not resemble a nation-to-nation one.
“How can [the Liberal government] say you’re nation-to-nation and respect the leadership you’re at the table with when you’re actually making their own kids go extinct from the identity that they hold?” he asked.
The 1985 legislation that added the provision to the Indian Act was under a Tory government.
Morin commended the Senate for taking the initiative with the bill and says the legislation, if passed, will help reunite families.
“We will see people go back to their communities that they have been ostracized from, and we’ll see people not have to worry about who they have a family with,” he said. “They can love who they love.”
Morin says he’s doubtful the bill will pass through the House of Commons by Friday.
“Unfortunately for the Manitoba Chiefs and every single First Nations status person across the country who is wanting to see some action in this regard, the Liberals have not made it a priority, and we’re going to have to revisit this in the fall,” he said.
Gull-Masty’s office says the government has accelerated a process “designed to consult on how, not whether, to address the second-generation cutoff.”
The minister’s office says that process is in its final stages with a legal advisory committee assessing proposals and that “First Nations partners will be consulted” this summer.
“They need to pass it now,” Wilson said of the bill.
“Not in the fall, not after another study, not after another delay — they need to pass it now.”
“We’ve been working on this for many years, many generations. There is no need for more consultations to be had.”