Ottawa can’t off-load First Nations to provinces – StarPhoenix

June 12, 2015

There are two ways a government can reduce spending: It can cut the budget; and it can fail to spend the amounts allocated in the budget. In the case of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, the federal government has done both.

In spite of First Nations having the fastest growing population in Canada, the government has cut the budget for Aboriginal Affairs in recent years. The department’s fiscal blueprint indicates that its budget will shrink by a billion dollars, to $7 billion in 2017-18.

In addition to the budget cuts, the department also has $1 billion in lapsed funding over the past five years, or an average of $200 million a year that it failed to spend. The money is returned to the federal treasury.

This places Aboriginal Affairs among the leaders in lapsed spending. It’s even worse when you consider that Aboriginal Affairs is underfunded to begin with, and the demand for housing, infrastructure and social spending continues to increase.

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