{"id":465633,"date":"2025-12-23T02:10:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T02:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/465633\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T02:10:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T02:10:27","slug":"ottawa-offers-over-35-5b-for-first-nations-child-welfare-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/465633\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa offers over $35.5B for First Nations child welfare reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 5 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s government is presenting a new plan worth more than $35.5 billion to keep First Nations children connected to their communities, culture and families.<\/p>\n

The offer is less than the $47.8 billion presented by former prime minister Justin Trudeau\u2019s government over 10 years, but it covers a shorter period of time and contains a key difference: a $4.4-billion annual commitment starting in 2033-34 after the initial $35.5 billion is spent.<\/p>\n

Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty shared the details with CBC News before making the announcement in Ottawa on Monday \u2014 the day her government\u2019s plan to reform the on-reserve child welfare system is due to be submitted at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day that we continue to try to define what an agreement looks like or trying to determine through legal measures how you’re going to stop discrimination is another day that a child is in care,\u201d Gull-Masty said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we’re going to really address that, it has to be in creating a system where a child is in care surrounded by their community, by those that they know, by those that love them, by those that are going to teach them their culture, their identity, their language.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the government\u2019s plan isn\u2019t the only one the tribunal is considering.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Ottawa, First Nations file separate child welfare reform plans:<\/strong>\"\"<\/p>\n

First Nations group prepping competing proposal for child welfare reform<\/p>\n

The federal government will soon submit a plan to reform First Nations child welfare to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, but First Nations leaders and child welfare advocates are attempting to prepare their own competing proposal.<\/p>\n

A group of First Nations chiefs and children\u2019s advocates, known as the National Children\u2019s Chiefs Commission, is filing a competing proposal with the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society.<\/p>\n

“At the centre of our plan is our love for our kids,” said Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the Caring Society.<\/p>\n

The commission was directed by the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) to develop a First Nations-led plan after chiefs rejected the $47.8 billion offer from the Trudeau government last year<\/a>, over concerns the money was only earmarked for 10 years and would be subject to annual reviews.<\/p>\n

National agreement, regional approaches<\/p>\n

The submissions are being made nearly a decade after the tribunal issued a landmark ruling<\/a> that found Ottawa racially discriminated against First Nations children by underfunding First Nations Child and Family Services, and ordered an end to the discrimination.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The proposals also come almost 20 years following a joint human rights complaint made by the AFN and the Caring Society in 2007.<\/p>\n

If the tribunal approves Ottawa\u2019s plan, Gull-Masty said the more than $35.5 billion in funding will be secured in a legal order to ensure it\u2019s protected from future changes in government and will be made available right away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said the government has not taken away the $47.8 billion previously on the table because it has been drawing from those funds to pay for services at a cost of approximately $4.4 billion per year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"PrimeAFN National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak looks on as Prime Minister Mark Carney responds to a question at the Assembly of First Nations Special Chiefs Assembly in Ottawa on Dec. 2. (Adrian Wyld\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

The government is pitching a national reform plan but looking to strike regional agreements with First Nations entities so they can tailor the delivery and funding of services to their distinct realities, Gull-Masty said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Under the proposal, she said communities will determine their standard of care.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe the community needs to drive the decision-making, needs to drive what they’re going to establish in their First Nation, because it is defined according to their identity,\u201d Gull-Masty said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Blackstock said she would rather see national minimum standards applied to First Nations child and family services with regional variations so the federal government is held accountable to those the same level of care across the country. <\/p>\n

“Canada systemically discriminated against every First Nation’s child across the country so we need systemic solutions to hold it to account to make sure it stops and it doesn’t happen again,” Blackstock said. “That can’t happen on a community-by-community approach.”<\/p>\n

So far, seven regions have expressed interest in pursuing regional deals with the government, according to Gull-Masty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said she hopes to have all regional agreements in place by September 2026 and implemented by April 1, 2027. Any community that doesn\u2019t come forward to strike a deal will fall under the national agreement, she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Announcement personal for minister<\/p>\n

The work hits close to home for Gull-Masty, who was elected as the first female grand chief of the Cree Nation Government in Quebec before entering federal politics.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because I\u2019m in this position doesn\u2019t mean that I don\u2019t know the personal experience of seeing children in my own family go into care,\u201d Gull-Masty said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to help them, trying to make those decisions for them \u2014 that\u2019s something very personal to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although there are two plans being submitted to the tribunal, Gull-Masty said she still wants to work with the National Children\u2019s Chiefs Commission and Caring Society.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis discussion is not about this plan or that plan,\u201d she said. \u201cThis discussion is about which path do you want to take, and how can we close that gap in working together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 5 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":465634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2147,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-465633","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115766456406003627","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}