FIRST READING: The unprecedented expansion of federal Indigenous spending

In 2024, Canada spent twice as much on Indigenous priorities as they did on the military

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As Canada limps into a potentially multi-billion-dollar crisis involving outstanding Aboriginal land claims, it comes just as federal spending on “Indigenous priorities” has already reached all-time highs.

As recently as 2024, the federal government was spending twice as much on Indigenous priorities as it was on the military. In fact, an explosion in Indigenous spending is largely responsible for the unexpected 2024 budget deficit that led to the ouster of then prime minister Justin Trudeau.

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When the Liberals first took power in 2015, their own estimates showed that total federal government spending on what they deemed “Indigenous priorities” was about $11 billion.

Within 10 years, this had nearly tripled. By 2024, internal Department of Finance estimates were showing that planned “investments in Indigenous Priorities” were set to hit $32 billion. This was the number cited in a recent story by David Frum in The Atlantic critiquing Canadian reconciliation policy as an “unresisted political revolution.”

But the true figure is even higher, with Indigenous expenditures recently surging to more than double that of the Department of Defence.

A breakdown by the website Canada Spends notes that in fiscal year 2024, 12.25 per cent of all federal monies were spent by one of two federal agencies: Indigenous Services Canada and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada.

This was compared to just 6.71 per cent spent on the military.

In 2023/2024, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada reported “actual expenditures”

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