LIVINGSTONE: Ottawa gave BC First Nations over $27 billion over 23 years — and most lacked treaties

David Livingstone is a senior fellow at the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy and the author of Federal funding to BC’s indigenous peoples over 23 years: $27.2 billion including non-treaty First Nations.According to an Angus Reid poll in March, 53% of British Columbians believe that the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), passed unanimously by the British Columbia (BC) legislature in 2019, “goes too far in limiting provincial authority,” up from 44% in August. Today, as concerns over property rights grow, and despite the desire of most Canadians who want indigenous Canadians to prosper, that number may be even higher. One important fact often overlooked in these discussions is the scale of public spending already devoted to reconciliation efforts in BC, as I note in a new report for the Aristotle Foundation. Between 2002 and 2025, for example, we found that the federal government transferred at least $27.2 billion (inflation-adjusted to 2025 dollars) to indigenous British Columbians and BC First Nations. That amounts to an annual average of almost $1.2 billion to a cohort that is 5% of BC’s population. Most of this money flowed through Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (a federal department) and Indigenous Services Canada (another federal department), with additional spending from Health Canada, Employment and Social Development Canada, and other federal departments. While federal transfers to BC First Nations and individuals remained relatively stable during Stephen Harper’s time as prime minister (2006-2015) at around $1 billion annually, under Justin Trudeau, spending rose dramatically, and by 2022/23 it reached over $2.7 billion — roughly 240% higher than the average annual transfer over the preceding two decades..Federal spending is only part of the picture, however. The BC government also spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually through the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation. And according to the province’s 2020 budget, BC also agreed to share 7% of gambling revenues with First Nations — estimated at roughly $3 billion over 25 years — and has pledged another $550 million for indigenous housing initiatives, whether those homes are built on or off reserves. Finally, it is worth noting that, in addition to the more than $1 billion of federal support per year for BC First Nations, native Canadians can also access every other federal and provincial government service. After all, of the 290,000 self-identified indigenous peoples in BC (including Metis), only 54 thousand — or 18.6% — report living on reserves. They thus have access to and benefit from every other type of federal and provincial spending, including municipal services if they live off-reserve. These numbers matter because public discussion about “reconciliation” often proceeds without acknowledging that Canadians have made significant material contributions to indigenous British Columbians (government and individuals).The important question, then, is whether these cash transfers achieve their intended goals..To help answer that question, consider the federal government’s own Community Well-Being (CWB) index, which measures indigenous outcomes in education, labour force participation, income, housing, etc. BC’s First Nations communities perform relatively well compared with many other First Nations in Canada. In 2021, BC First Nations scored 67 on the CWB index, above the national First Nations average (62.4), significantly ahead of First Nations in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, and nearly 20 points higher than the BC First Nations score in 1981 (48.6). Yet despite this progress, a substantial gap (13.5 points) remains between indigenous and non-indigenous communities in BC.Therefore, even if the purpose of this massive spending is to close socio-economic disparities, Canadians should ask why these gaps persist despite more than $27 billion in federal transfers over the past two decades. Also, just as important, given that at least part of the spending was not required by treaties or the Constitution, past spending should be factored into present-day land claims and reconciliation demands against other Canadians. The fact that taxpayers have already paid tens of billions of federal dollars in just the past 23 years alone in BC (never mind the previous century), plus provincial government spending, should matter in negotiations and in the courts. Citizens who pay the taxes to cover these transfers may wonder when the debt for past wrongs will finally be paid, and who ultimately gets to determine when payment ends. According to a 2025 Environics poll, a plurality of Canadians believe that governments’ reconciliation efforts “are about right” (29%) or have gone “too far” (22%). Only a minority (37%) believe “governments have not gone far enough.” Reconciliation, itself a malleable term, cannot simply become an open-ended project detached from measurable benchmarks or democratic accountability. As tensions continue in BC, the public and policymakers must recognize the compensation already paid, often without treaties in place that required such payments. David Livingstone is a senior fellow at the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy and the author of Federal funding to BC’s indigenous peoples over 23 years: $27.2 billion including non-treaty First Nations.

LIVINGSTONE: Ottawa gave BC First Nations over $27 billion over 23 years — and most lacked treaties

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