The Interlake Reserves Tribal Council joined the calls from First Nations leadership across Manitoba who say Jordan’s Principle funding has been delayed and unfairly denied.
At a news conference Friday, the council said its member communities have 500 families stuck in a backlog and have had to fund more than $1.5 million in supports out of pocket that should have been covered by Jordan’s Principle.
“There’s more denials than anything, rather than approvals,” said Lake Manitoba First Nation Chief Cornell McLean, who heads the IRTC.
DANIEL CRUMP / FREE PRESS FILES
Lake Manitoba First Nation Chief Cornell McLean
Requests for funding are regularly denied or delayed so long they are, for all intents and purposes, denied, McLean said. He noted Lake Manitoba First Nation was recently forced to pay for medical trials for a young girl in that community who should have been covered.
Jordan’s Principle, first enacted in 2007, is a federal program meant to provide quick, direct access to funding for First Nations children in need of health, educational or community resources regardless of government jurisdiction. Those questions are to be addressed after the fact.
“We’re looking for a compromise, at least something from the government to say, ‘Hey, get us through Christmas, let us feed our families here,” he said.
“Here we are again, begging for money, begging the federal government to help us feed our people… it was a ruling that was in our favour and we should be able to help our people with that money.”
Councilman Darrell Shorting of Little Saskatchewan First Nation said families are being forced to make tough decisions without access to basic income supports.
“Especially right now, December, how do you say no to someone who has young children who’s going to be kicked out of their home?”
The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal last month ordered the federal government to work with First Nations groups to clear backlogs of claims.
Peguis First Nation Chief Stan Bird said Indigenous Services Canada has a responsibility to respect that ruling.
“We’re not here asking for a favour, we’re asking Canada to uphold their laws… Canada has to follow its own laws,” he said.
Friday’s news conference followed calls in Ottawa from the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, who told reporters that many First Nations are “currently running deficits.”
— With files from the Canadian Press
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
Malak Abas
Reporter
Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.
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