Paying for Discrimination or Investing to End It: The Cost of Ignoring First Nations Led Solutions
Press Release
If the Canadian government had acted on evidence-based, First Nations-led solutions to address severe inequities in First Nations children’s services when they were clearly identified decades ago, First Nations children would not have lost their lives, families, and childhoods—and Canada would not now be paying $23.4 billion in compensation for preventable harm. That sum reflects the cost of government inaction, not investment.
The chart shows what $23.4 billion could have contributed if invested to address the structural inequities that drive child welfare involvement, including housing, water, infrastructure, health, and education. Addressing these conditions would have reduced removals and kept more children safely at home. Learn more about the Spirit Bear Plan to end inequalities for First Nations children. Canada now risks repeating the same mistake by sidelining the First Nations-led Loving Justice plan in favour of its own far less rigorous approach to permanently end the discrimination substantiated by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in 2016. Ignoring First Nations-led solutions does not save money; it defers and multiplies costs while harm continues.
The choice is clear: invest now to end discrimination or pay far more later for its consequences—with children paying the price in the meantime.
IHT5
