Public Safety Canada has said there is no way to route money to jurisdictions with no negotiated deals
. However, the department’s minister, Marco Mendicino, last Monday said he would figure out ways to move funds to the affected Indigenous police forces.
The minister’s office did not reply to questions sent Friday about whether any progress has since been made.Lawyers representing the Indigenous Police Chiefs of Ontario, of which the three affected forces are part, appeared in Federal Court last week seeking an emergency order to restore funding to communities with expired contracts. A ruling is expected within a month.
Jurisdictional issues around Indigenous policing are complex. Parliament has passed no laws to settle the question of the federal government’s obligations. The governing Liberals have long promised to produce a bill declaring First Nations policing to be an essential service, but they have not followed through.
Such problems go back decades, and the current funding method was first created in the 1990s as a potential fix. Its formula helped create and sustain more than 30 First Nations police forces across Canada, and the policy is also supposed to ensure that RCMP officers have an enhanced presence on reserves outside Central Canada.
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