Standing Committee on Public Accounts

Comité permanent des comptes publics

For immediate release

Ottawa, November 27, 2018 -

Indigenous Services Canada (ISC), known before August 2017 as Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, did not satisfactorily measured the socio-economic gaps between on-reserve First Nations people and other Canadians, and did not make adequate use of available data to improve education programs, according to a report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts presented to the House of Commons today by the Hon. Kevin Sorenson, Chair of the Committee.

In the Message from the Auditor General, in the spring of 2018, the Auditor General opined that the lack of progress on Aboriginal files was an incomprehensible failure. In the past, the federal government has made numerous commitments to meet Canada’s obligations to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people. For example, in 2008, the Department proposed that it would develop a system to capture First Nations’ education program data, which First Nations could access as well. This commitment was renewed in 2010 yet data access by First Nations seems to have been limited. Additionally, to supplement its core education funding budget, ISC received an additional amount for 2016–17 to 2020–21, but the Department’s analysis to support this amount was insufficient.

In its report, the Committee made three recommendations to Indigenous Services Canada, to ensure that the Department has all the data necessary to adequately measure the socio-economic gaps between on-reserve First Nations people and other Canadians and improve education programs, to reduce or close these gaps.