Thank you very much to the chair and to the committee members.
I'm joining you this morning—or this afternoon, I guess, depending on where you are in the country—from Treaty No. 13, the ancestral homelands of the Huron-Wendat, the Haudenosaunee and the Mississaugas of the Credit.
I'm here today to speak a bit about the federal transformation that's under way with respect to indigenous child and family well-being.
Native Child and Family Services of Toronto has served families in the Toronto and Peel area for the last 30 years. We started as a prevention agency and in 2004 began legislated child welfare. We currently serve about 8,000 unique community members annually from across Canada, last year serving members from 207 different first nations across Canada.
I'm here to talk a bit about federal funding with respect to the transformation currently under way through new legislation under the act respecting first nations children and families, formerly Bill C-92, and the impact that's had for service providers who are supporting indigenous children and families in urban centres.
Funding to date has largely been distinctions-based, which means that funding from the federal level is going directly to indigenous governing bodies. To be clear, that's something that Native Child certainly supports. I think what we're seeing is that federal funding trends meant to support Canada's most important relationship, as stated by the Prime Minister—the relationship with first nations—and meant to move reconciliation forward are not always getting to the children and families who require those services.
While funding at the federal level is going to first nations and other governing bodies to do the work, which is largely on reserve and is deeply needed and supported, we're seeing the majority of indigenous children and families across Canada from coast to coast to coast living and accessing services off reserve. That's creating challenges for agencies that are operating in urban spaces that are trying to support the youngest, most rapidly growing and most diverse demographic in Canada, which is indigenous children and youth.
While these children and youth are continuing to face challenges that have been made much more acute by the pandemic and are again being made more challenging by the current economic space, agencies like Native Child are struggling. Understanding that all three levels of government have a responsibility to support indigenous children and that it's a collective responsibility to do that work, I'm here today to speak to some of the things that I think the federal government can do to get ahead of some of these challenges before they become acute and before they become drastically more expensive.
There are three really well-developed mechanisms right now that agencies across Canada can access to support indigenous children and families.
The first is Jordan's principle. That's a funding program that is meant to support indigenous children regardless of where they are. This is just to state that our access to that program really is leading to phenomenal outcomes and to say that the budget coming in 2024 should continue to invest in Jordan's principle so that first nations children can get access to the medical and mental health services they need.
The second program that's well developed is the urban indigenous peoples program, UPIP. That program historically has been quite underfunded, I'll say. The amount of money that's available for agencies working in urban spaces is quite small, given the magnitude of the challenges in front of us with respect to decolonization and reconciliation. We at Native Child encourage the committee to think about how that program could be expanded or invested in, in ways that continue to allow agencies like Native Child to expand the service delivery that we provide.
Finally, I think the most complex equation in front of us as a nation is the recent Canadian Human Rights Tribunal final settlement, which really is going to talk about how indigenous governing bodies begin to create their own legislation and change the way indigenous child and family services are delivered across the country. To date, that's been very distinctions-based. It's been led by the Assembly of First Nations and other parties to the settlement, but urban voices, which are actually providing the majority of the services, have not been included.
As an example, here in the province of Ontario, where a quarter of the children in Canada live, 85% of all investigations involving a first nations child that involve child protection are happening off reserve, and the majority of the funding right now federally is going to on-reserve services. That inequity creates challenges for urban agencies that are trying to get ahead of some of these challenges and support those kids.
Given the status of first nations children and the numerous challenges they face with respect to the history of colonization and current barriers, I think we have some work to do collectively to work across jurisdictions between the federal and provincial governments to ensure funding is available for agencies providing child and family services to indigenous children and families.
I will leave it there and thank the committee for the time. I look forward to any questions later.
Meegwetch.