Ottawa extends Inuit Child First Initiative funding just days before March 31 expiry
Funding extension an issue Trudeau wanted to see concluded before stepping down, Crown-Indigenous relations minister says
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree says the federal government will extend Inuit Child First Initiative funding for a year. Funding for the federal program that helps Inuit children pay for health and educational needs was set to expire on March 31. (Photo by Corey Larocque)
The federal government will extend its Inuit Child First Initiative, averting what advocates of the program warned would be a “humanitarian crisis” if funding were to expire March 31 as planned.
Gary Anandasangaree, the Crown-Indigenous relations minister, announced a one-year extension of the program during a Nunavut-related announcement in Ottawa Saturday afternoon.
Speaking to dozens of Inuit at Ottawa’s Nunavut Sivuniksavut college, Anandasangaree said he was also announcing the extension on behalf of Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu, whose department funds the program.
“We wanted to make sure that there were no gaps in the services,” Anandasangaree said in an interview after he made the announcement.
The audience burst into applause after he said the program would continue.
“I’ve heard the positive impact the Child First Initiatives have had,” Anandasangaree said, adding he learned “first-hand” of the program’s impact while he was in Nunavut on government business a couple of times this year.
Anandasangaree told Nunatsiaq News in February that it was impossible to extend the program until Parliament resumed March 24. Staff in Hajdu’s office said the government was working on setting out long-term funding for the program.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was directly involved in the decision to extend the program before Parliament returns, Anandasangaree said, calling the one-year extension a “one-off” move made to address the “extraordinary issue.”
Anandasangaree emphasized it’s a one-year extension — not a long-term solution — that does still need to go through “a parliamentary process.”
Inuit Child First Initiative funding was one of the “very important cases” Trudeau wanted to conclude before he steps down as prime minister.
Liberals will pick a new party leader Sunday to replace Trudeau, who announced in January his plan to resign after nearly 12 years as head of the Liberal party, including more than nine years as prime minister.
The Inuit Child First Initiative provides funding for Inuit children to get help paying for things that affect their health or education. The federal government committed $167.5 million over two years, starting in the 2023-24 fiscal year, to the program.
Its most familiar services are food voucher programs recently implemented in many Nunavut hamlets. Last year, Iqaluit started its voucher program, which provides a $500 voucher a month to families for each child under 18 and an additional $250 for each child under four.
Supporters of the program, including Nunavut MP Lori Idlout, an NDP politician, have been calling on the federal Liberal government for months to announce an extension.
At a Feb. 28 news conference organized by Idlout, Taya Tootoo who works for the Arctic Children and Youth Foundation, warned the uncertainty about what happens after March 31 was “a humanitarian crisis in the making.”
Idlout said the program has helped more than 15,000 Inuit children.
“And the budget will balance itself”. Trudeau government is really going out with bang.
They’re racking the card.
Interesting to note this needs to go through a “a parliamentary process.”
Could that mean, it might not happen at all?
And we’ve never had so much new funding for Nunavut from the Federal Government, all kinds of new funding in the hundreds of millions, for training, for infrastructure, for housing. You see so many communities getting infrastructure, the hamlets, now HTOs will be getting a lot more funding, child initiatives funding,, indigenous people have never been treated better than any PM before, this PM allowed indigenous people to be part of the processes and to sit at the table to decide what are the priorities and came through with a lot of funding.
Like if or not, no PM has done more for Indigenous people than Justin.
More $$ for hard drugs for parents 🤔 get a job buy ur own food stop wasting my taxpayer money
ICFI funding goes to a LOT more than just those food vouchers. The system definitely needs an overhaul to prevent abuse, but it does far more good for this territory than it does bad.
Definitely need a lot of transparency. Help me understand, isn’t any healthcare cost that are not covered by NU healthcare/GN insurance covered by NIHB for Inuit? So why would an Inuk need ICFI for eg, speech therapy? If there is only 1 eligible escort for a minor, is additional escort applied through ICFI? Doesn’t sound fair? The ICFI food voucher has caused an imbalance with grocery spending in Nunavut. We know the stores jacked up their prices when the funding comes about. It isn’t fair to people without these vouchers. Grocery is expensive, going to get even more expensive due to the political climate. It does not only affect Inuit.
🤔 You instantly thought of drugs, you must be very happy 🤔
Why would I be happy my tax $$ is just going down the drain
YEA !!!!! More free money.