Health Canada having trouble finding First Nations kids to help because of ‘broken’ system – CBC

Department has spent only a quarter of $127M budgeted this fiscal year for Jordan’s Principle cases

Feb 09, 2017

Senior bureaucrats tasked with providing health care to Canada’s First Nations children say they have had trouble spending new money aimed at closing care gaps because the system is partially “broken” and there is a lack of capacity on the ground in Indigenous communities.

More than a year ago, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled that the federally run First Nations health-care system is discriminatory and demanded the government provide services to Indigenous kids at the same level as those provided by the provinces to children living off-reserve.

But as CBC News first reported Wednesday, Health Canada has spent only a quarter of the $127 million budgeted this year to implement Jordan’s Principle, a federal policy that stipulates no Indigenous child should suffer denials, delays or disruptions of health services due to jurisdictional disputes.

Read More: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/health-canada-jordans-principle-broken-1.3972924