Indigenous Services Canada is facing criticism for its slow response times to urgent requests for medical care and social services under Jordan’s Principle, a program designed to assist First Nations children. According to new data, the department met the 12-hour deadline for processing such requests only 33% of the time during the 2022-23 fiscal year, a decline of 19% from the previous year.
Experts warn that many children are likely facing irremediable harm due to the delays in accessing timely care. More recent figures filed with the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal confirm the decline in service, with compliance rates dropping to 24% for urgent cases and 29% for non-urgent cases between April 1, 2023, and February 29, 2024.
Jordan’s Principle is named after Jordan River Anderson, a First Nations child who died in 2005 after a two-year battle between Manitoba and Ottawa over who would pay for his medical care. In 2007, the House of Commons adopted the principle in Jordan’s name, and Ottawa launched the Jordan’s Principle program in 2016 to compensate qualifying families for their children’s health and therapeutic services.
In 2017, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ordered Canada to process Jordan’s Principle requests within a 12 to 48-hour timeframe. However, ISC lawyers are now asking the tribunal to extend Jordan’s Principle timelines and, in some cases, eliminate them, citing a significant increase in demand.
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak has expressed concern over the backlog and urged the federal government to comply with Jordan’s Principle deadlines immediately. ISC is also struggling with non-urgent cases, which are supposed to be processed within two days. According to the government’s response to an NDP order paper question, Indigenous Services Canada responded to only 36% of non-urgent cases between 2022-23 on time, a 10% drop from the previous year.
Data shows that the top three categories of approved requests for Jordan’s Principle since 2022 were for medical travel, education, and economic support. As of March 27, Indigenous Services Canada estimated that its Jordan’s Principle sector was coping with between 40,000 and 82,000 backlogged requests.
The tribunal documents reveal significant regional discrepancies in how Jordan’s Principle is administered, with Ontario having the lowest compliance rate for urgent cases and Quebec and the Atlantic region having the highest. For non-urgent cases, First Nations children in Manitoba experienced the slowest reaction time, while children in Alberta saw their requests processed before the deadline most often.
Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu declined CBC’s request for an interview, but a spokesperson for her department said the number of requests for services under Jordan’s Principle has grown rapidly, posing a challenge for the government to keep up with the volume. They stated that steps are being taken to reduce delays, but more needs to be done in collaboration with First Nations partners, provinces, and territories to better address the unique needs of First Nations children.
