Sahtu pursuing human rights case over Jordan’s Principle denials

After being turned back by federal judges, Sahtu school leaders say they are challenging Ottawa’s Jordan’s Principle cuts on human rights grounds.

Since early 2025, Indigenous Services Canada has declined to fund requests from NWT schools for programs that Jordan’s Principle previously covered.

Schools in the territory say the shift was sudden and without communication. Indigenous Services Canada maintains funding for those programs must now come from the territorial government, or individual families must apply for support on a case by case basis.

Heather Bourassa, chair of the Sahtu Divisional Education Council, told MLAs on Thursday that Indigenous Services Canada had “denied over $9 million in applications” for supports in the Sahtu since the 2024-25 financial year.

“We’ve appealed 14 of our files and ISC has stated that they determine appeals within 30 business days. However, we have not received any response for these appeals, and some of these files are 10 months old,” Bourassa told a committee examining the impact of the Jordan’s Principle changes.

“Through this we filed further applications with the federal court, forcing them to make a decision on these appeals, and that has been struck down, so we are still waiting to find out what will happen with these applications.

“Some of them we’ve received no response whatsoever, so we’ve continued pursuing a complaint through the Human Rights Commission based on this refusal to provide funding to school boards off-reserve.”

Federal court records show the Sahtu Divisional Education Council filed eight notices of application in 2025 seeking judicial review of federal decisions denying Jordan’s Principle funding.

The Attorney General of Canada, responding, said the internal appeals process was still under way and should be exhausted before the courts involved themselves. The court agreed that the applications had been filed prematurely and a second judge concurred last month.

Jordan’s Principle is a fund used to ensure First Nations children have equitable access to programs and services. In recent years, it had come to play a bedrock role in funding a wide range of northern student supports.

Bourassa, setting out the sheer scope of the program’s impact in the Sahtu, said local schools relied on it to fund:

• numeracy and literacy programs;
• mental health supports;
• speech and language therapy;
• cultural instructors;
• nutrition and food security support; and
• support assistants for students with complex challenges.

Without Jordan’s Principle funding, the Sahtu Divisional Education Council has dipped into its reserves to keep programs going “because we know that terminating those programs will harm our children,” Bourassa said.

“But SDEC has used all of our carefully conserved internal financial resources … we are projecting a deficit for the next school year and discussing terminating programs and support at some point, when we are unable to go forward.”

New NWT funding isn’t enough, schools say

Multiple times over the past year, the federal government has promised further changes to Jordan’s Principle after widespread criticism of 2025’s hurried alterations.

Ottawa renewed Jordan’s Principle funding in February for another year, committing $1.55 billion nationally.

So far, however, there has been no change to the position in which NWT schools find themselves. Indigenous Services Canada has given no indication that those schools will be welcomed back into the fold.

The effects of losing Jordan’s Principle funding have been widespread.

Schools in the territory have talked of hundreds of positions being jeopardized, only some of which were temporarily rescued when the GNWT stepped in with $14 million in emergency supports.

Indigenous Services Canada has repeatedly stated the territorial government is responsible for covering the gaps left behind by the withdrawal of the prior funding, unless families apply directly to Jordan’s Principle for similar supports.

The territorial government says it is in no position to do that, though the latest NWT budget did commit an extra $30 million to implement the recommendations of a recent inclusive schooling review. That money could be used to cover some similar programs and services.

Even so, school boards presenting to MLAs on Thursday said $30 million would not go far.

“We were using Jordan’s Principle for about $7 million a year,” said Sahtu DEC chair Bourassa, “so I don’t think $30 million over 10 school boards is going to cover that.”

‘What are we going to do?’

School boards painted a stark picture to MLAs of the effect in schools once positions started being lost last fall.

Take September and October 2025, when the YK1 school district had lost Jordan’s Principle funding and the GNWT’s emergency support had yet to arrive.

“We saw an increase in sub costs of over $90,000” in that period, said YK1 assistant superintendent Landon Kowalzik. He said that was a 91-percent increase on the same period in 2024.

“One school alone saw their sub costs related to medical leave increase by 1,125 percent,” Kowalzik added.

He said “the operational strain was immediate and visible” at the time.

Shirley Zouboules, the YK1 superintendent, said the district used the GNWT’s emergency funding to rehire 44 educational assistants and the impact was obvious.

“The potential loss of these supports for the 2026-27 school year will return us to a position of having to prioritize the safety of students and staff over learning opportunities,” she said.

School districts in other regions described similar impacts and fears for the future.

“If the JP funding is cancelled and if new funding does not come in its place, there will be no training, there will be no additional supports for students, for parents. This is a full stop,” said Pennie Pokiak, chair of the South Slave Divisional Education Council.

Pokiak said most of the South Slave “went without” many therapy services for youth until the advent of Jordan’s Principle funding. Now, she said, all of the progress made is at risk.

“The great things that we have been seeing over the last couple of years will be gone,” Pokiak said.

“They will be taken out of our schools, and they will have an impact on every child in the classroom and every teacher left standing.”

Dehcho MLA Sheryl Yakeleya expressed surprise at the magnitude of the impact. Shauna Morgan, the Yellowknife North MLA, said the Thursday session had made clear “how much reliance there has been on this funding to just ensure basic functioning of the schools.”

“We’re hearing loud and clear: this is not extra, optional funding,” Morgan said. “This is core to school functioning.”

Kieron Testart, the Range Lake MLA, voiced the issue that remains.

“If we cannot successfully lobby the federal government to do the right thing and invest appropriately in the success of children,” he said on Thursday, “what are we going to do?”

Our next article on Jordan’s Principle will look at how schools have used it to fill broader health gaps across the territory.