The Inuvialuit Regional Corporation has signed an agreement with the federal and NWT governments that paves the way for Inuvialuit to take control of child and family services for their members.
IRC Chair Duane Ningaqsiq Smith, territorial social services minister Lesa Semmler and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signed the document at a ceremony in Inuvik on Monday, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
The IRC passed its own child and family services law three years ago. The document signed on Monday is a coordination agreement – a necessary step under federal law for the IRC’s law to assume full force.
Ottawa said it will supply $533.5 million over the next 10 years as part of the agreement.
In a joint news release, the three governments said the new agreement “forges a path forward for Inuvialuit to rightfully determine how best to support the well-being of their families, reinforce their way of life, and strengthen ties within their communities, including by preserving children’s connections to their culture.”
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More information about the precise detail of how child and family services will evolve is expected to follow.
Smith was quoted as calling the agreement “an important step in acknowledging inherent Inuvialuit rights, enhancing our relationship with Canada, and ensuring our children, our families, and our way of life can thrive now and for generations to come.”
Trudeau, in the same news release, said the coordination agreement was a “historic step toward ensuring that Inuvialuit can exercise their jurisdiction and have the necessary tools and resources to best care for their children and their families.”
“Our government is here as a partner and this is a key part of our work,” he said.
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The Inuvialuit are the first Inuit group to enact their own child and family services law using federal legislation that came into effect four years ago, the news release stated.
That federal legislation had been the subject of a Supreme Court case, in which the NWT government intervened to support jurisdictions that argued Ottawa’s law went too far and created uncertainty about whose law would take precedence in some circumstances.
The Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that the federal law was constitutional.
The court said the federal law “falls squarely within Parliament’s legislative jurisdiction” rather than stepping beyond recognized limits, and the law simply restated “Indigenous peoples’ inherent right of self‑government” as already set out in Canada’s constitution.
