Establish a new fiscal relationship with First Nations communities and lift the 2% cap.

What success looks like

Increased support for Indigenous communities consistent with needs and population growth rather than a fixed 2% cap; co-developed approaches to reforming funding policies and accountability.

Government's narrative on progress

By 2021-2022, total federal government spending on Indigenous programs will increase from over $11 billion in 2015-2016 to over $15 billion in 2021-2022—an increase of 34% over six years. The Government of Canada has also committed to a new fiscal relationship that is sufficient, sustainable and predictable. The government is advancing a renewed fiscal relationship through two parallel initiatives. The first is with the Assembly of First Nations which resulted in a co-developed report entitled "A New Approach: Co-development of a New Fiscal Relationship between Canada and First Nation," that was submitted to the National Chief and the Minister of Indigenous Services in December 2017. In response to the report, the Minister committed to work with First Nation partners to move ahead on a number of proposals, including: providing more funding flexibility and predictability to support self-determination with the creation of ten-year-grants for qualified First Nations, with the goal of providing them to 100 First Nations by April 1, 2019; replacing the Default Prevention and Management Policy; and establishing an advisory committee to support ongoing co-development. Indigenous Services Canada offered the 10-year grant to 102 communities, with 82 communities signing on to the grant for April 1, 2019. It is expected that interest in the grant will continue to grow given the Budget 2019 announcement to introduce an annual escalator. and a replacement to the Default Prevention and Management Policy is in process. Work is underway to expand grant eligibility to aggregates, such as Tribal Councils who deliver services to a group of First Nations. To better support First Nations communities, to support strong Indigenous institutions and to advance the new fiscal relationship with First Nations, Budget 2018 provided investments of $188.6 million over five years, starting in 2018–2019. In addition, the AFN-ISC Joint Advisory Committee on Fiscal Relations was created in October 2018 and has met monthly since it was created in October 2018 and is on track to prepare recommendations to the Minister of Indigenous Services and the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations on key areas of the new fiscal relationship. The second collaborative process on fiscal policy is focused on Self-Governing Indigenous groups. Since May 2016, the government and Self-Governing Indigenous governments have been engaged in the Collaborative Self-Government Fiscal Policy Development Process, to develop a new policy framework for the provision of federal financial support to self-government. A co-developed draft policy proposal was completed in December 2017 and was endorsed by the Government of Canada. Through Budget 2018, the government committed $189.2 million in 2018–2019 to begin the implementation of fiscal policy reforms that have been co-developed with self-governing Indigenous Peoples. This funding will support key priorities, including the closing of socio-economic gaps, infrastructure, data collection and governance. Further, to help ensure that Indigenous governments have the fiscal capacity to govern their people, communities, land and resources effectively, Budget 2019 proposes to invest in a new co-developed collaborative self-government fiscal policy including: • a new approach for governance funding; • a new life-cycle funding model for the maintenance and replacement of community infrastructure; and • an interim approach to land and resource management responsibilities.

Note: this is the government's own description, not an independent assessment.