Indigenous Services minister says community shouldn’t worry about zeros in budget

OTTAWA — The Indigenous Services minister says community leaders shouldn’t worry about zeros in the recent federal budget for programs their members rely on.

Instead, Mandy Gull-Masty says, those holes are an opportunity for leaders to suggest where the government should allocate money in the future.

“I also want them to be encouraged by the fact that we still have more work to do to define what the future looks like in the budget for Indigenous Peoples,” Gull-Masty said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

“There’s also been a lot of progress made on the amount of investment that we’ve seen in the last decade — the expenditures for First Nations have been significant. We’re not walking back from that progress, we’re maintaining it.”

Spending for Indigenous-specific programming has grown since 2015, when former prime minister Justin Trudeau made it a priority for his government to help close socioeconomic gaps in Indigenous communities as part of a broader push toward reconciliation. But Indigenous leaders and policy experts say that increase in spending is still far off from what communities need to succeed, especially for infrastructure.

Gull-Masty said the cuts for her department in the budget amount to two per cent cut at a time when other ministers were told to trim spending by 15 per cent. She praised Carney for giving her ministry more leeway than others, and said it shows he is taking the concerns of the community seriously.

Indigenous leaders, however, worry the cuts go far beyond the advertised two per cent, with funding for Trudeau-era programs — including education and emergency management — set to expire next year.

Some critical programs, like Jordan’s Principle and the Inuit Child First Initiative — meant to support children in accessing health and social supports — also show zeros for next year.

Gull-Masty’s office said those programs are not set to sunset, but there is work to do to ensure they’re effective.

“The zeros are there because we haven’t defined what that space looks like. There are some programs that are going to sunset. It doesn’t mean that the issues that those programs were set up to address are not going to be responded to,” Gull-Masty said.

“We have to do the work internally, and this was my mandate that I go to community (members) and identify what those outcomes are for the next round of funding.”

This budget, unlike previous ones, has no specific chapter on Indigenous spending, with a heavy focus on how Indigenous communities can work with Ottawa to move its major projects agenda forward and build the economy.

Gull-Masty said it should not be read as an oversight or sidelining, but as a sign all ministers are incorporating Indigenous priorities into their files.

“When you compartmentalize Indigenous Peoples into one space, you’re actually putting barriers up. You’re putting barriers up when you are showcasing that you can only go here when addressing Indigenous Peoples,” Gull-Masty said.

“I’m encouraged that those barriers were not reflected in that way.”

Reports show that that strategy often leaves communities worse off, especially those without the administrative supports needed to navigate the bureaucracy.

A report from the federal auditor general last month found Indigenous Services doesn’t give enough support to increasing First Nations’ capacity to deliver programs, and takes a “passive and siloed” approach to supporting those communities.

Karen Hogan said more remote communities miss out on application-based programs because they lack the administrative supports they need to access them, which makes existing disparities even worse.

Gull-Masty didn’t answer whether there will be more supports available for communities to access funding that is not Indigenous-specific.

Just after the budget was released last week, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said the freeze in funding will have serious effects on communities with high birthrates, especially when it comes to education and infrastructure.

“This budget was a chance to build some of that trust,” she said. “Sadly, it has failed, has failed to meet that moment.”

A report last year by the Assembly of First Nations and the Conference Board of Canada found closing that infrastructure gap could generate $635 billion in economic output over seven years — figures Prime Minister Mark Carney said could help offset the effect of U.S. tariffs implemented by President Donald Trump.

But the budget fell far short of the $350 billion the Assembly of First Nations has said is needed to close that gap, and Ottawa is on track to miss its own 2030 deadline for doing such.

Woodhouse Nepinak has often pointed to funding for education as a way to set communities up for success and be less reliant on Ottawa, but the budget did not deliver new funding for education.

Gull-Masty said while post-secondary education is important, there will be more employment opportunities in the trades as Canada moves forward with its major projects agenda.

“I’m not trying to move away from the post-secondary education space, but we have to acknowledge we’re going into a future of building Canada. That’s going to take qualified builders. That’s going to take people to fill those jobs as well.”

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed praised the budget’s promises of investments in the Arctic, and particularly its support for an Inuit university.

But he said Inuit are troubled that the document framed Arctic policy in terms of security and national sovereignty without explaining how the region’s original inhabitants fit into that policy, and said Carney’s government does not work as well with Indigenous Peoples as Trudeau’s government did.

Métis National Council President Victoria Pruden said she was disappointed the funding in the budget wasn’t broken down by Indigenous group.

“It really falls short when it comes to identifying Métis-specific investments and dedicated distinctions-based funding, which is what we’ve really been used to in prior budgets,” she said.

“The very mention of ‘Métis’ in that budget was less than we’ve seen in recent years. We cannot lose momentum.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 10, 2025.

— With files from Dylan Robertson

Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press