Indigenous Services Canada: 2025-26 Departmental Plan

Results we plan to achieve:

• Funding and supporting a suite of culturally relevant community-based programming and services related to improved access to healthy food, physical activity, commercial tobacco use prevention and cessation, and chronic disease prevention and management.
• Promoting healthy development of children and implementing the co-developed Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care Framework led by Employment and Social Development Canada and administered by the Public Health Agency of Canada.
• Continuing to support Inuit-led approaches to achieving a reduction of tuberculosis rates in Inuit Nunangat by 2025 and the elimination of tuberculosis in Inuit Nunangat by 2030. This will be done by collaborating with Inuit partners and continuing to provide the ongoing funding received through Budget 2023 to support the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), Inuit Tuberculosis Elimination Framework and the implementation of the four Inuit-led regional action plans. ISC continues to work with federal partners and drug manufacturers to address delays in accessing tuberculosis drugs not yet approved in Canada through alternative access pathways.
• Providing funding to Indigenous organizations and communities to address sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBI), including HIV testing, culturally safe care and harm reduction initiatives/projects. ISC will continue to support partnership with the National Microbiology Laboratory at Public Health Agency of Canada to support the availability and accessibility of STBBI testing in First Nations, Inuit and territorial communities.
• Supporting Indigenous communities to address existing or emerging communicable diseases, sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections through vaccine administration of preventable diseases.
• Supporting the recovery and expansion of environmental public health services to reduce environmental health risks, including establishing an Impact Assessment and Health Team.
• Continuing to work closely with parties and partners to implement the October 2023 Federal Court approved $23.34 billion settlement agreement on compensation for children who were removed from their homes under the First Nations Child and Family Services Program and those who were impacted by the federal government's narrow definition of Jordan's Principle.
• Ensuring greater consistency and clarity regarding the services available to First Nations children under Jordan's Principle to help better address the unique needs of First Nations children.
• Collaborating with Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and Inuit Treaty Organizations in the co-development of a long-term approach to the Inuit Child First Initiative.
• Continuing to work with Indigenous partners to ensure equitable access to quality, culturally safe health services by building upon the outcomes of the National Dialogues aimed at eliminating racism in Canada's health systems by:
  • Advancing the full implementation of Joyce's Principle and ensure it guides the work with First Nations, Inuit and Métis partners to co-develop separate policy and/or legislative options, as well as helping foster health systems free from racism, where Indigenous Peoples are respected and safe. The department will implement new funding of $167.6 million announced in Budget 2024 to address anti-Indigenous racism in health systems. This funding will continue to support patient advocates, health system navigators, midwives and birth support workers, as well as initiatives to increase Indigenous representation in the health professions; and
  • Implementing the $2 billion Indigenous Health Equity Fund over ten years, announced through Budget 2023 alongside new provincial and territorial health funding. The fund is being distributed directly to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities.

Results we plan to achieve:

• Ensuring our efforts to address inequities and barriers experienced by Indigenous populations in mental wellness are strongly guided by Indigenous-led frameworks such as the First Nations Mental Wellness Continuum Framework, Honouring Our Strengths, and the National Inuit Suicide Prevention Strategy and Pathfinding Towards a Flourishing Future Awareness and Advocacy Guide: Addressing the Need for Improved Services for Indigenous Children and Youth, Including 2SLGBTQI+ Young People.
• Continuing to work closely with Indigenous partners to support distinctions-based, Indigenous-led, culturally-relevant and community-based approaches to mental wellness for First Nations, Inuit and Métis.
• Federally-funded mental wellness programming and services aim to improve well-being in Indigenous communities by providing:
  • Access to local multidisciplinary mental wellness teams;
  • Wrap-around services at opioid agonist therapy sites;
  • Life promotion and suicide prevention initiatives, and substance use prevention and treatment services; and
  • Access to trauma-informed clinical mental health counselling and cultural and emotional supports.
• Supporting class members and potential class members impacted by the First Nations Child and Family Services, and Jordan's Principle Settlement Agreement through the access of trauma-informed health and cultural support services.

ISC will measure distinctions-specific progress towards increasing positive outcomes by using data from self-reported health surveys that ask respondents to rate their mental health. This is a recognized metric that closely aligns with other measures of mental health and well-being. This data contributes to measuring and reporting on results in Departmental Result 2: Indigenous Peoples are mentally well.

Results we plan to achieve:

• Continuing funding or directly providing primary care services in 79 remote and isolated First Nation communities where there is very limited access to provincial health services, and support a broad spectrum of health and continuing care services.
• Improving client access to the Supplementary Health Benefits Program through collaboration with Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the National Inuit Committee on Health to identify opportunities to improve the delivery of benefits to eligible clients.

In 2025-26, ISC will support access to federally-funded health services by:

• Improving client access to the Supplementary Health Benefits Program by continuing to engage with the Assembly of First Nations on a multi-year joint review of the Non-Insured Health Benefits Program, and with Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the National Inuit Committee on Health to identify opportunities to improve the delivery of benefits to eligible clients. The Supplementary Health Benefits Program (also known as Non-Insured Health Benefits) provides registered First Nations and recognized Inuit with coverage for a range of medically necessary health benefits.
• Implementing the three-year (2023-24 to 2025-26) Short Term Capacity Building Projects Initiative. Funding Short-Term Capacity Building projects supports successful Indigenous applicants by funding immediate and short-term initiatives that increase capacity to improve Long-Term and Continuing Care (LTCC) services. This support enhances short-term capacity to improve LTCC elements such as research, health resources, care models, and networking, that has a direct and immediate impact on Indigenous Peoples physical and mental well-being.
• Co-developing policy options for the First Nations and Inuit components of a new and more holistic long-term and continuing care framework, and a Métis Long-Term Continuing Care Framework.
• Finalizing the engagement for the Métis Long-Term Continuing Care Framework, and producing a Summary Engagement Report.
• Working with federal partners and First Nations and Inuit organizations to enhance and maintain capacity within communities to plan, develop and deliver comprehensive, culturally sensitive, accessible and effective home care services that align with health services accreditation standards and Community Health Nurses of Canada's 2024 Competencies for Home Health Nursing.
• Supporting community-led models of integrated care, community-led distinction-based approaches to palliative and end of life care and the access to Medical Assistance in Dying as an end-of-life care choice.
• Supporting the long-term and home health needs of the medically complex pediatric population through Indigenous-led, community-based programming.

Furthermore, ISC will help facilitate access and continuity of care in remote and isolated communities through planned activities in 2025-26 such as:

• Continuing to implement the five-year Budget 2021 investment of $354 million for clinical client care, which aims to increase the number of nurses and other medical professionals in remote and isolated First Nation communities.
• Ensuring a stable health workforce with continued implementation of strategies, the updating of the ISC Health Human Resource Framework and the continued implementation to assist with the recruitment and retention of oral health providers, environmental public health officers and the Nursing Talent Requisition Acquisition & Management Strategy to support the nursing workforce in Indigenous communities. This includes targeted strategies to strengthen the recruitment and retention of Indigenous health human resources.
• Supporting the creation of safer working conditions for front line health professionals.
• Promoting digital healthcare technologies to connect First Nations individuals, families and communities in remote areas with access to medical professionals and services.
• Continuing to enhance capacity to report, respond to, and learn from patient safety incidents in order to prevent reoccurrence and improve patient safety outcomes and experiences.

ISC will also continue to work with Indigenous partners to transform health systems and advance new and progressive approaches to improve services and support Indigenous Peoples to independently determine and deliver high quality health services by:

• Managing federal responsibilities related to innovative Health Transformation projects through supporting First Nations-led design and delivery of federally-funded health services, and being an active funding and governance partner to the First Nations Health Authority in British Columbia.
• Building data capacity for Indigenous communities and increase the collection, access and use of health data, and facilitating transfer through the development of a robust Indigenous data network.
• Maintaining culturally relevant, trauma-informed, and Indigenous-based healthcare standards in Indigenous communities through accreditation.
• Increasing the number of First Nations, Inuit and Métis health care workers through the ongoing implementation of the Nursing Health Human Resources Framework, Environmental Public Health Recruitment and Retention Strategy and the Aboriginal Health Human Resources Initiative.

ISC continues to negotiate trilateral Health Transformation agreements which will support large scale health service transfer of federal First Nations healthcare to new First Nations-led health entities that will design, plan, administer, and deliver healthcare contributing to systemic change, including building upon the Agreements-in-Principle signed in Manitoba with Keewatinonk Inniniw Minoayawin Incorporation and Southern Chiefs' Organization, finalizing a trilateral Agreement-in-Principle with Tajikeimɨk in Nova Scotia and a trilateral Charter Implementation Protocol with the Nishnawbe Aski Nation in Ontario, as well as work towards agreements with the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Health and Social Services Commission and Battlefords Tribal Agency in Saskatchewan.

ISC continues to be an active funding and governance partner to the First Nations Health Authority in British Columbia, the health and wellness partner to 203 First Nations communities across the province.

ISC will monitor progress on access to quality federally-funded health services through the First Nations Regional Health Survey which provides ISC with results on the perceived quality of health care service delivery in remote and isolated First Nation communities. Progress will also be measured on the transfer of health services to First Nations through funding agreements and the 10-year New Fiscal Relationship Grant.

For 2025-26, the Health service area has identified the following key uncertainties related to:

• The approach to a comprehensive, culturally inclusive, land-based health services while providing holistic wrap-around prevention, timely diagnosis and care;
• The impact of inconsistencies or inefficiencies in the current design and/or delivery of equitable patient-centered quality health care;
• The ability to recruit and retain health human resources, including Indigenous health workers, needed in communities (work environment, aging health infrastructure, compensation and incentives, the national human resource crisis, challenging work environments); and
• Challenges associated with the reforms of Jordan's Principle and the establishment of effective pathways for connecting individuals to needed services.

In order to address these risks and ensure the achievement of the Departmental Results, ISC will continue to co-develop initiatives seeking to improve healthcare services for Indigenous Peoples including health transformation, the Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care Framework, Short Term Capacity Building Projects Initiative, and the Indigenous Health Equity Fund. The department is also implementing recruitment and retention strategies to support health care providers in Indigenous communities.

Furthermore, the department is analyzing requests through Jordan's Principle to better understand opportunities to connect requesters to available federal programs. In order to address the challenges associated with Jordan's Principle, ISC will continue to work with First Nations partners, provinces, and territories to support the development of long-term approaches to help better address the unique needs of First Nations children, including the establishment of effective pathways for connecting children to needed services.

ISC is actively working to resolve delays in processing Jordan's Principle requests while maintaining a focus on urgent cases. In an effort to reduce delays, ISC is evaluating decision-making processes at both regional and national levels to ensure greater consistency and clarity regarding the services available to First Nations children under Jordan's Principle.

Results we plan to achieve:

In 2025-26, the department will address issues of family violence by:

• Providing funding for emergency shelters, transition homes, second-stage housing, and violence prevention programming for Indigenous women, children, 2SLGBTQI+ persons, and families.
• Collaborating with partners, including Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and the Indigenous Steering Committees, to support the Indigenous Shelter and Transitional Housing Initiative (2021-2022 to 2025-2026) by revising the national funding formula for operational funding of emergency shelters and incorporating transitional housing into the model. This initiative facilitates the construction of Indigenous shelters and transitional housing for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis across on- and off-reserve locations, urban centers, and northern regions, including Inuit Nunangat and the Territories.
• Supporting Indigenous-led projects through the Pathways to Safe Indigenous Communities Initiative with a focus on Inuit and Métis projects. In 2024-25, $31 million was allocated, to address community safety and well-being needs as defined by First Nations, Inuit, and Métis recipients. ISC will continue conducting groundwork analysis to explore options for sustaining the initiative beyond its conclusion in 2025-26.
• Monitoring the proportion of First Nations children on reserve in care and those who are placed with family members.

In 2025-26, the department will continue to provide support through the Income Assistance program by:

• Delivering funding for essential needs and working with First Nation communities to understand the emerging needs of low-income individuals and families on reserve.
• Delivering funding to provide specific, targeted income supports to on-reserve Income Assistance clients living with disabilities.
• Monitoring emerging needs of low-income individuals and families on reserve due to the ongoing impact of high inflation and increased costs of living.
• Working with First Nations to transfer service delivery of the Income Assistance program through New Fiscal Relationship Grant and Self-Government agreements.
• Supporting First Nations partners with the implementation of disability income supports.
• Developing a new digital system that will allow for timely evidence-based decision making for eligible recipients.
• Providing additional service delivery funding to Income Assistance recipients and to First Nations organizations (such as the Ontario Native Welfare Administrators Associate and the Support Lodge) to deliver Income Assistance training.
• Providing eligible individuals and families on reserve who are considered very low-income, and likely to be unemployed, with funds to cover essential living expenses such as, food, clothing, rent, and utilities.

ISC will measure the effectiveness of the Income Assistance program's reach by monitoring the level of income assistance being delivered on reserve to support community needs. ISC will also measure program performance in comparison to the Income Assistance programs delivered by the provinces and territories, which will provide information regarding labour force gaps and community self-sufficiency.

In 2025-26, ISC will advance efforts to improve the socio-economic opportunities for Indigenous Peoples living in urban areas through the Urban Programming for Indigenous Peoples by:

• Providing financial support to urban Indigenous organizations offering culturally appropriate programs and services supporting vulnerable and at risk urban Indigenous populations such as, women and girls, seniors, persons with disabilities and youth.
• Collaborating with key partners such as the National Association of Friendship Centers, the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres and the National Urban Indigenous Coalition Council to develop a new Data Collection Instrument to understand and report on the fluctuations in program and service offerings, and obtain missing and late reports from organizations.
• Co-developing an Indigenous-led Performance Framework and implement its required reporting tools.
• Engaging in a data collection activity using analytics to better understand the needs of Indigenous service providers and the demographics they serve. This will facilitate reporting and enhance research and innovation to help close service gaps and provide information necessary for program renewal.

In 2025-26, the Child and Family Services program will continue:

• Delivering the First Nations Child and Family Services program, including the implementation of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal orders and continued efforts to improve program delivery.
• Renewing agreements that support the delivery for the Fist Nations child and Family Services program through a collaborative approach with affected First Nations and provincial and Yukon agreements.
• Implementing An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families (the Act) and advance the priorities of Indigenous communities, groups, and Peoples to exercise their jurisdiction over child and family services.
• Continuing to support Indigenous governing bodies to develop capacity as they explore and/or exercise jurisdiction in accordance with the framework of the Act.
• Ensuring the needs of Indigenous governing bodies are addressed at coordination agreement discussion tables by continuing to support active participation with Indigenous groups, communities, and Peoples.
• Undertaking the legislatively required five-year review of provisions and operation of the Act in collaboration with Indigenous stakeholders and partners and provinces and territories.
• Co-developing distinctions-based long term funding frameworks with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis organizations to support the exercise of jurisdiction in relation to child and family services through the framework of the Act.
• Advancing distinctions-based cultural learning opportunities for Child and Family Services Reform public servants to promote civility, cultural safety, and humility in their work.

For 2025-26, the Children and Families service area has identified the following key uncertainties related to:

• Measuring clear outcomes under An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children, youth and families;
• The ability to fully reform the First Nations Child and Family Services program through consultation with Indigenous partners, provinces and territories; and
• Inefficiencies in the design of social programs and the lack of predictable and adequate long-term funding impacting the ability to address the needs of individuals and families.

To address these risks, the department will ensure it meets its fiscal commitments as set out in coordination agreements for the Act, by working towards the co-development of distinctions-based long term funding frameworks with Indigenous partners, and advance meaningful engagement with National Indigenous Organizations, provinces, territories, and regions to review provisions and operation of the Act.

ISC will also work with other government departments and Indigenous Steering Committees to ensure adequate funding in support of emergency shelters, and work with First Nations to undertake the delivery of the Income Assistance program through New Fiscal Relationship Grant and Self-Government agreements.

Results we plan to achieve:

• Support First Nations' control over First Nations education through continued implementation of the co-developed, provincially comparable elementary and secondary education transformation funding formulas introduced in 2019.
• Collaborate with partners to update Interim Funding Formulas to support culturally-appropriate elementary and secondary education programming.
• Continue delivery of request and proposal-based programs such as: High-Cost Special Education Program; Education Partnerships Program; Innovation in Education Program; and Research and Learning Program, all of which support First Nation students, communities and organizations, and the First Nations and Inuit Cultural Education Centers Program, which support First Nation and Inuit communities, in advancing their vision for sustained and improved elementary and secondary education outcomes.
• Continue to implement adult education for First Nations on reserve and status First Nations in the Yukon and Northwest Territories through the $350 million allocation over 5 years announced in Budget 2021.
• Collaborate with First Nations partners on the adult education components of the broader elementary and secondary performance measurement framework to collect data on education outcomes.
• Implement the Post-Secondary Education Strategies developed for First Nation, Inuit and Métis Nation organizations to better meet the needs of students and institutions, and report on their respective outcomes.
• Develop long-term regional First Nations Post-Secondary Education models, while continuing to explore funding options.

For 2025-26, the Education service area has identified the following key uncertainties related to:

• Challenges in concluding Regional Education Agreements (REAs); and
• Rising costs for elementary and secondary funding.

To address these risks, the department will continue to work with partners on evidence-driven methodologies and projection used to implement the provincially comparable K-12 education transformation funding formulas as well as deliver complementary proposal-based programs such as the High-Cost Special Education Program, to support students in their elementary and secondary education.

The department will also support First Nations, Inuit and Métis students in achieving post-secondary education levels comparable to non-Indigenous students through continued implementation of the distinctions-based Post-Secondary Education Strategies.

Results we plan to achieve:

For 2025-26, the Infrastructure and Environments service area has identified the following key uncertainties related to:

• The department's ability to address and keep pace with the impacts of climate change;
• The department's ability provide effective and timely emergency management support in the case of multiple and concurrent disruptions;
• The lack of alignment in critical infrastructure programming between the Department, other Government Departments, and Orders of Government; and
• The department's ability to discharge its legal obligations determined by settlement agreements related to the infrastructure and environments service area.

To address these risks, the department will develop Climate Risk Management Action Plans. Additionally, funding received through the National Adaptation Strategy will support Indigenous organization-led engagement on the gaps and needs of health systems in the context of climate change. The department will also support programs for strengthening First Nation communities' emergency preparedness and response capacities supporting communities to take ownership of service development and implementation. ISC will prioritize Indigenous-led initiatives to enhance land and environmental management and advance service transfer. Furthermore, ISC will continue reviewing its internal processes and governance associated with the management of settlement agreements to ensure it fulfils its obligations.

Results we plan to achieve:

In 2025-26, ISC will enhance inclusivity in business support programs by:

• Providing support and funding to assist communities in planning for economic opportunity that reflect Indigenous ways of being and knowing.
• Continuing the co-development of a Transformative Indigenous Procurement Strategy with Indigenous partners as a policy framework centered around self-determined Indigenous priorities for a longer-term approach to federal Indigenous procurement.
• Implementing economic development funding for First Nation and Inuit communities South of 60.
• Facilitating the integration of Indigenous rights, priorities and interests into international economic development activities, including international collaborative research projects, bilateral and multilateral trade initiatives.
• Continuing to apply Indigenous methodologies to data collection and analysis.
• Supporting the ongoing engagement of Indigenous organizations to increase economic opportunities for Indigenous businesses and meet Canada's commitment to a mandatory minimum 5% federal Indigenous procurement target.
• Implementing the forthcoming recommendations from the Strategic Partnerships Initiative program evaluation to continue to advance Indigenous participation in large, complex, multi-year economic opportunities across sectors.
• Collaborating with federal and Indigenous partners to support the Indigenous tourism sector and guide current and future federal programming and policy direction.
• Continuing to invest in Clean Energy economic development initiatives for Indigenous communities and partners through the Strategic Partnerships Initiative as per Budget 2024's commitment to renewing Clean Energy funding of $36M over three years (2024-25 to 2027-28).
• Continuing to develop the Business Navigator Service to connect Indigenous businesses and individuals access programs and services across different Government of Canada departments and agencies.
• Developing projects to focus on developing Inuit capacity within the Nunavut Settlement area for 2025-26 based on stakeholder engagement, and will continue with multi-years projects. A report will also be developed summarizing key statistics and qualitative data from the previous fiscal year on federal contracts in the Nunavut Settlement Area (NSA).

In 2025-26, ISC is enhancing economic programs and policies in collaboration with Indigenous partners to align future initiatives with the principles of the United Nations Declaration Act by:

• Continuing to collaborate with First Nations and the Joint Technical Committee (JTC) to modernize the Indian Oil and Gas regulations. ISC is working with the Indian Oil and Gas Canada (IOGC) Co-management Board to advance Assertion of Jurisdiction.
• Supporting on-reserve oil and gas activities that result in lease and royalty revenues, providing Indigenous communities with economic growth. Indian Oil and Gas Canada enables Indigenous communities to achieve greater self-reliance and economic prosperity by advancing First Nation Assertion of Jurisdiction and by leveraging the development, by industry, of on-reserve oil and gas resources for the economic benefit of the First Nation community.
• Coordinating strategic engagement and supporting Indigenous economic priorities in international forums, ensuring these priorities are represented in global discussions and decision-making through international collaborative research projects and bilateral and multilateral trade initiatives, promoting knowledge generation and sharing between national, international, and Indigenous partners.
• Implementing recommendations from the 2023-24 Indigenous Entrepreneurship and Business Development (IEBD) Program evaluation. The IEBD Program consists of three complementary sub-programs that support Indigenous entrepreneurs in Canada: Access to Capital, Access to Business Opportunities and Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Business programs.
• Advancing cooperation activities under the Indigenous Peoples Economic and Trade Cooperation Arrangement (IPETCA) and the IPETCA Partnership Council. Facilitate collaborative projects and initiatives that enhance economic opportunities for Indigenous Peoples across IPETCA economies.
• Supporting the participation of Indigenous Peoples and the integration of Indigenous perspectives in activities undertaken as part of Canada's inclusive approach to international trade, including trade agreement negotiations led by Global Affairs Canada and other economic development activities.
• Promoting Indigenous considerations with regards to Clean Growth, economic development, and environmental and climate stewardship. ISC participates in the Ministerial Working Group on Regulatory Efficiency for Clean Growth Projects, as well as on interdepartmental Regulatory Efficiency Action Councils. As Canada prioritizes Clean Growth initiatives more broadly, ISC helps ensure that the pivotal role for Indigenous peoples in Clean Growth is centred in key discussions.

For 2025-26, the Economic Development service area has identified the following key uncertainties related to:

• Departmental outcomes and Indigenous partners' priorities on UNDA and economic reconciliation; and
• Systemic barriers for communities such as limited capacity and access to capital restricting Indigenous business growth.

To mitigate these risks, the department will collaborate on, and support research initiatives that produce evidence on economic reconciliation, guided by Indigenous priorities. Additionally, it will facilitate strategic engagement and champion Indigenous economic priorities in international forums, ensuring they are represented in global discussions and decision-making. ISC will also allocate funding for distinctions-based projects to support greater participation of Indigenous suppliers in federal procurement.

Results we plan to achieve:

In 2025-26, ISC will support the transfer of responsibilities, governance capacity and self-determination by:

• Advancing the modernization of governance funding programs to meet the needs of Indigenous governance via the Governance Modernization Working Group and partners-led research and analysis.
• Supporting self-determination by providing capacity development opportunities to participating First Nation communities through the Community Development Wrap Around Initiative (CDWAI).
• Increasing the number of communities certified by the First Nations Financial Management Board, which is part of the eligibility criteria to enter into a New Fiscal Relationship Grant.

In 2025-26, ISC will focus on simplifying access for registered First Nations individuals to the benefits, rights, programs and services to which they are entitled by:

• Increasing the number of newly registered individuals with the goal of 80% of registered First Nation population becoming active Secure Certificate of Indian Status (SCIS) card holders.
• Delivering the initial Digital Application Services (DAS) simplified version that provides expanded access to SCIS online applications. Work is underway to enhance the SCIS application option, introduce registration, and allow external trusted source partners to use the system.
• Ensuring 100% of registered annuitants who request their Treaty Annuities are paid and increase service offerings of treaty payments by launching a new system for treaty payment administration.
• Holding in-person treaty payment events in both community and urban centers.
• Supporting eligible First Nations to take on greater control of Trust Moneys and provide options to First Nations to adopt alternatives to or within sections 64, 66 and 69 of the Indian Act.

In 2025-26, ISC will continue to help Indigenous communities to reclaim jurisdiction in areas that matter to them by:

• Expanding the New Fiscal Relationship Grant, a funding mechanism that enhances First Nation communities' ability to control the design, delivery and management of services, to First Nations-led service delivery entities, such as Tribal Councils and health authorities.
• Continuing active co-development within the New Fiscal Relationship Policy Technical Working Group (Assembly of First Nations, First Nations Financial Management Board, Aboriginal Financial Officers Association of (AFOA) Canada) on a First Nations Auditor General.
• Performing risk-based monitoring, as well as contributing to responsive capacity supports for ongoing eligibility of the New Fiscal Relationship Grant. An evaluation of the New Fiscal Relationship 10-year grant was launched in December 2023 and is expected to be completed by June 2025.
• Completion of the findings reports on the five-years of engagement on a National Outcome-Based Framework, with a set of bilingual resources to be shared in 2025 with interested First Nations communities and data governance leads to be adapted as they identify their own measures of community success and well-being based on their own Indigenous ways of knowing.
• Continuing work to advance the gradual transfer of control over ISC services, including housing and infrastructure to Indigenous control, as outlined in the Department of Indigenous Services Act, 2019.

ISC will work to support First Nation-led processes to transition away from the Indian Act in 2025-26 by:

• Facilitating First Nation development of customary election codes. ISC will review proposed customary codes to ensure it meets the criteria set out in the Policy on Conversion to Community Election System.
• Increasing qualified electoral officers through the department's training on the First Nations Elections Act and the Indian Band Election Regulations to electoral officers. Completing a policy to guide how the department shares data with external partners.
• Continuing supporting by-laws development, Indigenous law making and justice initiatives through initiatives through training, program support and engagement.

ISC will advance the development and implementation of the innovative Transformational Approach to Indigenous Data initiative in 2025-26 by:

• Advancing ISC data governance through the departmental data strategy and take steps to clarify the legal framework for transferring departmental data to Indigenous partners in support of ISC's mandate to transfer of the responsibility for programs and services.
• Leading government-wide efforts to support Indigenous Data Sovereignty with Library and Archives Canada and Treasury Board Secretariat through the Working Group on Indigenous Data Sovereignty.
• Continuing collaborative relationships with Indigenous partners to support Indigenous-led data sovereignty.

For 2025-26, the Governance service area has identified the following key uncertainties related to:

• The lack of availability of stable, flexible, and adequate funding while progressing toward a unified service transfer mandate;
• The potential delays in ongoing co-development activities and meeting related expectations; and
• Lack of consistent data-sharing practices that respond to evolving needs.

To mitigate these risks, the department will support governance capacity initiatives, promote self-determination and data sovereignty, and advance the transition away from the Indian Act. It will also contribute to expanding the New Fiscal Relationship Grant, drafting policy on external data sharing, and completing a report identifying barriers to data sharing.