Minister Beech Touts Budget Boost for Indigenous Reconciliation

April 23, 2024 Sechelt, British Columbia Employment and Social Development Canada

It is a plan to build a Canada that works better for everyone, where younger generations can get ahead, where their hard work pays off, and where they can buy a home-where everyone has a fair chance at a good middle-class life.

Today, the Honourable Terry Beech, Minister of Citizens' Services, and the Honourable Mark Holland, Minister of Health, met in Sechelt, British Columbia, to highlight Budget 2024's investments that contribute toward a fair future for Indigenous Peoples, including:

• Unlocking pathways to post-secondary education by investing nearly $243 million for the next generation of First Nations university, college and post-secondary students, building on the $487.5 million over 10 years invested in Inuit and Métis post-secondary education strategies through Budget 2019.
• On-Reserve income assistance funding of $927 million to help on-reserve residents and eligible First Nations people in Yukon cover daily living costs. Budget 2024 invests in income support programs across the country for First Nations persons with disabilities for the first time in Canadian history to make disability supports on reserves[JN1] , and for eligible First Nations persons with disabilities in Yukon, comparable to supports off reserves.
• Investing $1.8 billion to support Indigenous communities in exercising their jurisdiction under An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families, including the first Inuit agreement to support community-led, prevention-based solutions to reduce the number of children in care.
• Supporting Indigenous cultures by investing over $290 million in Indigenous-led efforts to reclaim, revitalize, and strengthen Indigenous cultures and languages. Restoring and promoting language and culture is an important part of healing, reconciliation, and fostering a strong sense of identity and community.
• Fair Tax jurisdiction for Indigenous communities by expanding opt-in Indigenous tax jurisdiction frameworks that advance self-determination and build strong fiscal relationships while generating important revenues for community priorities.
• Addressing the legacy of residential schools by investing an additional $96 million to support Survivors, their families, and their communities, along with educating all Canadians about these truths, to ensure that these wrongs are recognized and never happen again.
• Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program, which will offer up to $5 billion in loan guarantees to unlock access to capital for Indigenous communities, enabling them to share in the benefits of natural resource and energy projects in their territories and on their own terms.
• Boosting Indigenous economic opportunity with $388 million to support Indigenous entrepreneurship and Indigenous tourism and to unlock new clean energy opportunities through the Strategic Partnerships Initiative.
• Indigenous housing and community infrastructure investments of $918 million beyond the $5 billion already available for communities in 2024-25, to accelerate work to narrow housing and infrastructure gaps in First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities, as follows:
  • $426 million for First Nations on reserves;
  • $62 million for self-governing and modern treaty First Nations;
  • $370 million for Inuit communities; and
  • $60 million for Métis communities.
• First Nations and Inuit health investments of $1.1 billion to ensure that Indigenous Peoples have fair and equal access to health care, where they feel safe and heard, no matter where they live.
• Supporting Indigenous mental health with an investment of more than $630 million for improving Indigenous Peoples' access to mental health services, including through distinctions-based mental wellness strategies.
• Addressing anti-Indigenous racism in health care by fulfilling Joyce's Principle through a $168 million investment, helping to ensure that Indigenous Peoples are treated with the respect and safety they deserve.
• Northern food security program enhancements worth $124 million, to ensure Nutrition North Canada can continue to make nutritious foods more accessible and affordable in Northern communities, and to support the Inuit Nunangat Food Security Strategy, which prioritizes local food production and community food programs.
• Strengthening access to culturally important foods with investments of more than $40 million to support Indigenous Peoples' access to traditional foods and help eradicate food insecurity.
• First Nations emergency management and preparedness investments to equip communities with the tools they need to combat increasingly frequent climate disasters, particularly wildfires. Budget 2024 provides an investment of $175 million, in addition to $260 million provided in the 2023 Fall Economic Statement.
• Advancing Red Dress Alert by investing $1.3 million to co-develop with Indigenous partners, on a priority first phase, a regional Red Dress Alert system.
• Support for Indigenous justice programming to address the overrepresentation of Indigenous Peoples in the justice system and discrimination within the justice system, including $87 million to support programming and advance the Indigenous Justice Strategy.
• First Nations and Inuit-led policing to address policing needs identified by Indigenous communities, supported by an investment of more than $467 million.