Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller was in Saskatchewan on Thursday for two multimillion-dollar announcements.
In the morning, Miller was in Saskatoon where he pledged $23 million in federal funding over five years to the Saskatoon Tribal Council’s Child and Family Services Agency.
He said the agency and new federal funding builds on Bill C-92 which starts the process of transferring control of child and family services to Indigenous communities.
“Just before the pandemic broke out, I sat down with Tribal Chief Arcand (Mark) and his team,” Miller said. “And they basically pulled out a very detailed spreadsheet, I’d say a couple of months after the royal assent of Bill C-92, and said this is the money and resources we need and this is how we are going to deploy it to keeping our children safe.”
STC’s Child and Family Services Agency is based on a “family enhancement model” and provides a range of child and family services programming including prevention and protection.
Miller said under the legislation each Indigenous community has the ability to administer child and family services in a way that best meets the needs of its members.
“Each community has their particular process. There are several dozen ones that have exercised their intent to exercise jurisdiction under Bill C-92. Others want to have that financial discussion at the outset because they feel they can’t properly move without the federal government and the applicable provincial or territorial government being there financially for them.”
In the afternoon, Miller was on the Moosomin First Nation to announce $38 million for a new K-12 school.
The new facility will feature a larger gym, a cultural learning resource centre, media centre and science labs.
The money is being flowed through the Indigenous Infrastructure Fund.
According to a government email, as of March of this year, the fund has invested more than $1.23 billion to support 203 school-related projects, 133 of which are complete.
These projects will benefit 243 First Nations communities comprising 276,000 people.
They include the construction of 66 new schools and renovations to 86 existing schools.
(PHOTO: Indigenous Services Canada Minister Marc Miller was in Saskatchewan on Thursday for two multimillion-dollar announcements. File photo.)