Liberals pledge $9B in new money for Indigenous communities in 2024 budget

The Trudeau government is promising $9 billion in new cash for Indigenous communities over the next five years, a smaller spend than some past budgets but one the government says builds on past investments and maintains an upward trend.

With no single big-ticket item for Indigenous Peoples this year, ongoing Liberal commitments and previous pledges figure prominently in Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland's latest federal budget.

«Spending on Indigenous priorities has increased significantly since 2015 (181 per cent) with spending for 2023-24 estimated to be over $30.5 billion,» the budget says.

Yet as she rose Tuesday in the House of Commons to table the plan, Freeland didn't mention reconciliation — a topic that figured prominently in Liberal budgets past — nor did she mention Indigenous issues at an earlier news conference with reporters.

Budget 2024's biggest line items on that front include $1.5 billion for Indigenous child and family services, $1.2 billion for First Nations kindergarten to Grade 12 education, and $1 billion for First Nations and Inuit health.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his ministers had fanned out en masse in the weeks before the budget, announcing a raft of housing and affordability measures targeting younger voters, which raised expectations among Indigenous groups as well.

The spending plan offers $918 million for Indigenous housing and community infrastructure, on top of $5 billion already available this year from past budgets, «to narrow housing and infrastructure gaps» in Indigenous communities.

That new money represents less than one per cent of the $135.1 billion the Assembly of First Nations says is required to solve the housing crunch in First Nations communities alone, without considering