First Nations child compensation could hit $15B: new report

The parliamentary budget office says it could cost the federal government up to $15 billion to compensate First Nations families and children impacted by the child welfare system, as well as denials or delays of essential services.

The figure updates the budget office's initial estimate to include thousands more children, parents and grandparents who would qualify for $40,000 payments.

Jordan's Principle requires governments to cover the cost of services for First Nations children, and work out any disputes over jurisdiction afterwards.

In 2019, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ordered the government to compensate children and families who had been denied service, or faced delays. The federal government subsequently appealed that decision.

At the time, Indigenous leaders in Saskatchewan called the tribunal's decision the first of many steps toward healing broken First Nations families in the province and criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for appealing it.

Speaking to the Saskatoon Starphoenix in 2019, Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Chief Bobby Cameron said the families he'd spoken with were hoping to use the money to invest in the future.

“It's not about just getting money for the sake of getting money,” Cameron said. “We would invest it in our children and grandchildren, that's why we want it.”

In 2019, the tribunal ordered the federal government to pay $40,000 to every First Nations child who, since 2006, was inappropriately removed from their home, and pay the same amount to their parents or caregiver.

The same amount, which is the maximum the tribunal can award, was also ordered for children who faced denials or delays of basic services like medical care.

At the time of the tribunal ruling, the Assembly of First Nations estimated 54,000 children and their parents could receive compensation, for a bill of at least $2 billion.

Now, budget officer Yves Giroux's report pegs those figures far higher, but he warns estimates are uncertain because of data limitations. His updated report adds roughly 100,000 more First Nations children, along with their parents and grandparents, whose compensation would alone be about $10 billion.

The new estimate of about $15 billion includes the 13,000 children originally expected to be eligible for compensation, mostly related to delayed approval of claims, as well as those taken into care unnecessarily, and their families.

NDP MP Charlie Angus said the high cost of compensating First Nations children and families is a result of the government's refusal to negotiate a solution with them after the human rights tribunal found Canada guilty of systemic discriminations against Indigenous children in 2016.

Angus said the new report shows that the cost would have been between $2.2 billion and $4.5 billion if the government began negotiating in good faith.

“The real cost has been paid in the lives of Indigenous children on reserves across this country,” Angus said Tuesday.