Trudeau government fails to triple annual spending on Indigenous issues: Report

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While the Trudeau government has tripled the money it spends on Indigenous issues, from $11 billion annually in 2015 to more than $32 billion earmarked for 2025, that doesn’t appear to be improving the lives of Indigenous people on reserve, according to a report. New research from the fiscally conservative Fraser Institute.

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Author Tom Flanagan, in his article “The Money Scream: The Liberal Government’s Policies Toward First Nations,” argues that the most effective program to improve the lives of Indigenous people on reserves is the Liberals’ Canada Child Benefit, launched by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2016—all Canadians except those in the highest income brackets A universal program that helps families.

That raises the question of where all the other federal money spent specifically on Indigenous issues goes, Flanagan said.

Statistics Canada’s Community Well-Being Index, which measures the standard of living of communities across the country based on education, employment, income and housing, reports that from 2016 to 2021, the average gap between First Nations families living in Canada was reported. reserves and other Canadian families reduced from 19.1 points to 16.3.

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He argues that this is primarily due to the increased income the CCB provides to First Nations families living on reserves, because these families have more children and have lower incomes on average than other Canadians.

The CCB allocates up to $7,787 per year per child under the age of six, and up to $6,570 per year for children between the ages of six and 17.

Those amounts begin to decline once a family’s adjusted annual net income rises above $36,502 and the Trudeau government says it has lifted hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty.

But it also raises the question of where the money from other federal programs specifically targeting Indigenous people goes.

The Trudeau government, for example, has repeatedly fulfilled its 2015 promise to end all drinking water advisories on First Nations reserves by March 2021.

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Although the federal government has lifted 147 long-term advisories since 2015, 31 remain in effect in 29 Indigenous communities, according to the most recent data available.

Auditor General Karen Hogan reported in 2021 that “Indigenous Services Canada is not providing adequate support to First Nations communities to access safe drinking water,” and predicted the problem could persist for years on some reserves.

In addition to tripling annual spending on Indigenous issues to $32 billion from 2015 to 2025, Flanagan noted that the Trudeau government has resolved many Indigenous class-action lawsuits without litigation, resulting in increased taxpayer liabilities.

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Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux reported in July that the federal government’s estimate of all outstanding legal obligations as of March 31, 2023 was $76 billion, rising by around 30% annually since 2016, with much of that attributed to Indigenous people. claims.

Giroux noted that the Trudeau government has recorded $26 billion in spending in 2023 on Indigenous litigation in that year alone, and he advised parliamentarians to get better information from the government about how those expenditures affect the government’s budget balance.

Meanwhile, Flanagan said certain legal claims involving Indigenous groups were being settled by the Trudeau government at a rate four times higher than the previous Progressive Conservative government, leading to significant transfers of land and money to First Nations.

“If policymakers in Ottawa want to help Indigenous people, they should look closely at what kinds of spending policies produce the most tangible benefits,” Flanagan said.

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