KLEIN: Indigenous Spending Nears $32B, but Results Still Lacking

KLEIN: Indigenous spending nears $32B, but results still lacking

The federal government’s 2024-25 budget sets aside nearly $32 billion for Indigenous Services Canada. The number is real. The questions about where it's going are just as real.

Federal departments fall short of Ottawa’s 5% Indigenous procurement target

Several of Canada’s federal departments didn’t meet the mandated target for Indigenous procurement in 2023-2024, according to government documents obtained by Canada’s National Observer through an Access to Information request.

As Debt Hits $167 Billion, MP Says Victoria Can’t Afford Indigenous ‘Voice’ Plan

Libertarian MP David Limbrick says he will oppose Victoria’s proposed state-based Indigenous Voice, concerned at the cost taxpayers will bear. The upper house MP’s comments come after Labor revealed its Statewide Treaty Bill, which aims to embed a “Voice” that will act as an advisory body to the parliament. The Voice formalises the existing First Peoples’ Assembly and will receive the power to “make decisions and rules about specific matters tha…

Advocates denounce plan to cut federal Indigenous services budget

Advocates are warning that cutting billions of dollars from the federal Indigenous services budget, as the Carney government intends to do, could worsen the quality of essential programs and may spark lawsuits that would cost Ottawa more money in the long term.

Why government’s aversion to risk impacts Indigenous Peoples the most

CIRNAC and ISC must be forced to actually get the money out the door to Indigenous communities because this is the rare case in which federal spending done poorly actually leads to lost lives.

Indigenous Spending Nears $32B, But Results Still Lacking

Indigenous organizations have long asked for the same thing: greater transparency, direct transfers to communities, and Indigenous-led governance over spending. That’s a conversation worth having. But what can’t continue is the cycle of increasing budgets without clear metrics, evaluations, or accountability frameworks.