Trudeau gov't tripled annual spending on Indigenous points: Report

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Printed Nov 19, 2024 • Final up to date 13 minutes in the past • 3 minute learn

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau walks in a gymnasium the place Indigenous folks of Ouje-Bougoumou who had been evacuated due to wildfires had been staying, Wednesday, June 14, 2023 at Chicoutimi Cegep in Saguenay, Que. Photograph by Jacques Boissinot /THE CANADIAN PRESS

Whereas the Trudeau authorities has tripled the sum of money it spends on Indigenous points from $11 billion yearly in 2015 to greater than $32 billion earmarked for 2025, it doesn’t look like bettering the lives of on-reserve Indigenous folks, in keeping with a brand new examine by the fiscally conservative Fraser Institute.

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In “An Avalanche of Cash: The Liberal Authorities’s Insurance policies Towards First Nations,” writer Tom Flanagan argues the simplest program at bettering the lives of Indigenous folks on reserves has been the Liberals’ Canada Baby Profit launched by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2016 — a common program that helps all Canadian households, aside from these within the highest revenue brackets.

That raises the query of the place the entire different federal cash being spent particularly on Indigenous points goes, Flanagan stated.

He notes that from 2016 to 2021, Statistics Canada’s Group Effectively-Being Index, which measures the usual of dwelling of communities throughout the nation on the idea of training, employment, revenue and housing, reported that the typical hole between First Nations households dwelling on reserves and different Canadian households was lowered from 19.1 factors to 16.3.

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He argues this occurred primarily as a result of elevated revenue the CCB offers to First Nations households dwelling on reserves as a result of they’ve extra kids and decrease incomes on common than different Canadians.

The CCB allocates as much as $7,787 yearly per youngster beneath age six and as much as $6,570 yearly for kids age six to 17.

These quantities begin to be lowered when a household’s adjusted annual internet revenue is over $36,502 and the Trudeau authorities says it has lifted tons of of 1000’s of youngsters out of poverty.

However it additionally raises the query of the place all the cash from different federal applications focused particularly to Indigenous folks goes.

For instance, the Trudeau authorities has repeatedly damaged its 2015 promise to finish all ingesting water advisories on First Nations reserves by March 2021.

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In response to the most recent knowledge obtainable, whereas the federal authorities has lifted 147 long-term advisories since 2015, 31 stay in impact in 29 Indigenous communities.

Auditor Common Karen Hogan reported in 2021 that “Indigenous Providers Canada didn’t present enough help to First Nations communities in order that they’ve entry to protected ingesting water” predicting the issue might proceed on some reserves for years

Along with tripling annual spending on Indigenous points to $32 billion from 2015 to 2025, Flanagan famous the Trudeau authorities is settling many Indigenous class motion lawsuits with out litigation, leading to growing liabilities for taxpayers.

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Parliamentary Price range Officer Yves Giroux reported in July that the federal authorities’s estimate of all of its excellent contingent authorized liabilities, as of March 31, 2023, was $76 billion, rising by about 30% yearly since 2016, a big portion of this attributed to Indigenous claims.

Giroux famous that in 2023, the Trudeau authorities recorded bills of $26 billion associated to Indigenous litigation in that yr alone, and suggested parliamentarians to hunt higher data from the federal government on how these expenditures impression the federal government’s budgetary steadiness.

In the meantime, Flanagan stated, particular authorized claims with Indigenous teams are being settled by the Trudeau authorities at a fee 4 occasions increased than that of the earlier Progressive Conservative authorities, resulting in a big switch of land and cash to First Nations.

“If coverage makers in Ottawa need to assist Indigenous folks, they need to look intently at what forms of spending insurance policies produce essentially the most tangible advantages,” Flanagan stated.