Parliamentary Committee Notes: Recognizing First Nations police services as essential services
Proposed Response:
- The safety and security of Indigenous communities is a priority for the Government of Canada.
- We continue to work collaboratively with First Nations, provinces and territories, and key First Nations partners as we make progress on co-developing federal legislation to support First Nations police services as an essential service.
- Engagement and collaboration are central to the co-development of legislation that will meet the needs of First Nations and First Nations police services. We have been working closely with our partners and we have been engaging broadly on this topic for over two years now.
- In summer and fall of 2023, Public Safety Canada worked with a variety of First Nations subject matter experts, as well as provincial and territorial representatives, to discuss practical and technical considerations to inform the legislation.
- These technical discussions supported the drafting of proposed Elements, which are expected to be the final co-developed product and which will inform the drafting of a bill.
- Indigenous-led regional and national engagement sessions with First Nations concluded this past March on the Elements, and we are finalizing these.
- We cannot do this alone. Collaboration between First Nations, provincial and territorial, and federal governments is integral to the success of this important work.
If Pressed Responses:
Do provinces/territories support this initiative?
- Public Safety Canada officials at all levels have engaged repeatedly and meaningfully with provincial and territorial representatives on a future legislation that would recognize First Nations police services as essential services.
- Generally, provinces and territories are supportive of where we are heading and we will continue to work with them to ensure legislation complements provincial and territorial policing frameworks.
- The mandate for this legislation is limited to First Nations police services which are authorized and regulated by provincial and territorial authorities.
- British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Québec, and Nova Scotia have the requisite provincial legal frameworks to establish First Nations police services.
Do you have the support of the Assembly of First Nations?
- The Government of Canada has been transparent that the Assembly of First Nations had been identified as our main co-development partner when this work started. However, since then, the Assembly of First Nations has revised its mandate for this initiative and is no longer congruous with the federal government’s mandate.
- The Government of Canada remains open to continuing to work with the Assembly of First Nations on this initiative.
- Work has continued with technical expertise from the First Nations Chiefs of Police Association, the First Nations Police Governance Council, provinces and territories, as well as individual First Nations.
- We will continue to be transparent with and engage First Nations to keep them informed on progress moving forward.
How much would this legislation cost to implement?
- It is challenging to predict with certainty what the budget of any given police service may be, but Public Safety Canada has developed a costing tool in consultation with and validation from provinces and territories, the First Nations Chiefs of Police Association and the First Nations Police Governance Council, to help inform internal discussions on costing – and to prepare for tripartite negotiations.
- The tool identifies the best possible estimate for funding required for equitable police service delivery across the various provincial and territorial legislative frameworks by leveraging financial data from non-Indigenous comparators, including, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Ontario Provincial Police, and Sûreté du Québec, and takes into account the unique factors that impact First Nations police services – like remoteness.
- Earlier this month, Budget 2024 committed $267.5 million over five years to Public Safety Canada for the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program and to support the work of Public Safety Canada’s Indigenous Secretariat; and $200 million over five years, to repair, renovate and replace policing facilities in First Nations and Inuit communities.
- These investments are building blocks to table legislation that recognizes First Nations police services as essential services.
Background:
The December 2021 mandate letters of the Ministers of Public Safety, Indigenous Services and Crown–Indigenous Relations direct Ministers to: Continue to work with First Nations partners to co-develop a legislative framework for First Nations policing.
The mandate received aims to support First Nations police services through a federal legislation which would recognize First Nations police services as an essential service. The envisioned legislation would be primarily designed to: govern federal conduct, including with respect to equitable and predictable levels of funding; reaffirm Canada’s commitment to upholding modern treaties and self-government agreements; and, complement provincial/territorial policing legislation.
In March 2022, Public Safety Canada launched an engagement process to inform the co-development of First Nations police services legislation, resulting in the release of a What We Heard Report later that year.
Informed by the input received through this and other ongoing engagement with First Nations, First Nations organizations, First Nations police services, First Nations police boards/commissions, provincial and territorial representatives as well as subject matter experts and others, Public Safety Canada developed with its key partners Objectives and Guiding Principles to inform the legislation. These were shared broadly with First Nations in summer 2023.
Following further collaborative work with subject matter experts – like the First Nations Chiefs of Police Association and First Nations Police Governance Council – and provincial and territorial representatives, elements were developed in fall 2023, which are meant to set out the policy intent of the proposed legislation.
These elements are being finalized with key partners based on national engagement led by the Indigenous Leadership Development Initiative in February and March 2024 . The revised elements will inform the drafting of a bill.
The co-development of First Nations police services legislation is also a commitment made in the Federal Pathway, the Government of Canada’s response to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls final report. Additionally, passing First Nations police services legislation would fulfill Action Plan Measure FN10 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act Action Plan 2023-2028.
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