Federal offer to reform First Nations child and family services worth $47B, sources say

The federal government's offer to finalize reform of First Nations child and family services is worth $47 billion over 10 years, a source involved in the negotiations tells CBC News.

Two other sources, who were present for a closed-door session Tuesday afternoon at the Assembly of First Nations's annual general assembly in Montreal, also said the proposed settlement is worth more than $45 billion.

CBC News is not identifying the sources because they were not authorized to discuss the confidential settlement talks or in-camera proceedings.

AFN National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak revealed the offer's existence in her opening speech to the delegates Tuesday morning and called it a «fair offer,» but didn't provide specifics.

A spokesperson for the national chief wouldn't comment on the reported value of the offer and neither would Indigenous Services Canada (ISC).

In a statement, ISC indicated that a final settlement has not yet been reached.

«Reaching an agreement with the First Nations parties would represent a major milestone in the long-term reform of the program and would advance our ongoing commitment to ensure discrimination ends, wrote ISC spokesperson Anispiragas Piragasanathar.

The offer would finalize an agreement-in-principle worth $20 billion over five years that was reached in 2021. A separate but related deal to compensate survivors of the chronically underfunded child welfare system on-reserve and in Yukon was also reached in 2022, and later approved at $23 billion.

The two deals together form an umbrella settlement aimed at resolving a long-standing complaint at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, brought by Cindy Blackstock and the AFN in 2007.

The complaint, which the tribunal upheld in 2016, alleged the