First Nations being used as a deficit ‘scapegoat,’ say Indigenous leaders

Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

Dave Baxter
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Winnipeg Sun

Federal and provincial Indigenous leaders are crying foul, after the federal government blamed much of a higher than expected deficit on recent Indigenous legal claims.

Since Monday’s tabling of the Liberal government’s fall budget, much of the focus in Ottawa has been on the dysfunction within the Liberal caucus, due to Chrystia Freeland’s unexpected resignation as finance minister and deputy prime minister on Monday, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s continued lack of clarity regarding his political future.

But before her resignation, Freeland had previously promised to keep the federal deficit at or below $40 billion in 2023-24.

On Monday however, it was revealed that the federal deficit now sits at $61.9 billion, and in their 2024 Fall Economic Statement the feds said the increase is “mainly owing to provisions for potential future developments, namely higher-than-anticipated provisions for contingent liabilities relating to development in Indigenous claims currently being negotiated with parties or that are before the courts.”

The feds said that in 2023-24 the government expects to record expenses totalling approximately $16.4 billion related to “Indigenous contingent liabilities,” along with another $4.7 billion related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and they blamed that for their ballooning deficit.

“Absent these expenses, the projected 2023-24 budgetary deficit would have been roughly $40.8 billion, compared to Budget 2024’s forecast of $40 billion,” the fall budget reads.

Federal and provincial Indigenous leaders said federal government is “scapegoating” Indigenous people to explain the growing deficit.

“These statements are misleading,” Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Cindy Woodhouse said in a release responding to the federal budget.

“These claims are a result of Canada failing to meet its obligations to First Nations. Instead of spending resources on legal battles that question our inherent rights, the government must prioritize sustained, targeted investments that will grow the Canadian economy and advance reconciliation.”

First Nations leaders in Manitoba are also taking exception with the federal government’s claims in their fall forecast of “unprecedented investments” in First Nations communities, as they said much of that money stems from decided, settled and ongoing legal battles.

“The Fall Economic Statement may indicate that spending for First Nations may have risen exponentially over the last ten years,” Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) Acting Grand Chief Betsy Kennedy said in a statement.

“But large amounts of those dollars are earmarked for claims won against the government of Canada, including the $8 billion Safe Drinking Water compensation, $10 billion for a Treaty Annuity Settlement, compensation to families and children for discrimination within their own CFS Program, and numerous specific claims to individual First Nations.”

Indigenous leaders in Manitoba have also expressed concern.

“The turmoil that erupted in Parliament only exacerbates the frustration of First Nations, whose critical needs remain unaddressed amid this political instability,” Kennedy said.

The head of an Ontario-based organization that represents 39 First Nations in that province is taking it one step further, now calling on the federal government to offer an official apology for blaming their growing deficit to Indigenous legal claims.

“This type of slander is utterly shameful when the government said that there is no more important relationship than the one with First Nations,” Anishnabek Nation Grand Council Chief Linda Debassige said in a release.

“The Anishinabek Nation calls upon the government to apologize for this statement.”

— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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