Mr. Speaker, until recently, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, CIRNAC, and Indigenous Services Canada, ISC, were part of the same department. In 2019, the Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada split to create the separate departments of CIRNAC and ISC. Consequently, in this reply, reports are combined for CIRNAC and ISC, as some litigation files have both ISC and CIRNAC as clients.
With regard to litigation and other legal expenditures involving CIRNAC or ISC since January 1, 2016, to the extent that the information requested is or may be protected by any legal privileges, including solicitor-client privilege, the federal Crown asserts those privileges. In this case, it has only waived solicitor-client privilege, and only to the extent of revealing total expenditures and the total number of claims as defined below.
Regarding litigation and other legal expenditures from January 1, 2016, to October 16, 2023, the combined total for CIRNAC and ISC is approximately $349.6 million.
The above-mentioned legal costs or expenditures are with respect to legal services provided by the Department of Justice, as well as legal agent costs. To note, Department of Justice lawyers, notaries and paralegals are salaried public servants and therefore no legal fees are incurred for their services. These legal professionals work together as integrated teams across the national litigation sector and departmental legal services units to support the Minister of Justice and Attorney General in representing the Government of Canada in litigation. However, a “notional amount” can be provided to account for the legal services they provide, calculated by multiplying the total hours recorded in the responsive files for the relevant period by the legal services hourly rates approved by the Treasury Board of Canada. File-related legal disbursements and other legal expenditures are not included in the above calculation.
The total amount mentioned in this response is based on information contained in Department of Justice systems, as of October 16, 2023.
There have been approximately 4,903 legal claims involving ISC and/or CIRNAC from January 1, 2016, to October 16, 2023. Examples of legal claims include actions, class actions, judicial review applications, specific claims and coroner’s inquests. Some of these claims were commenced before 2016 and continued into the relevant time period.
The vast majority of these files, approximately 86%, have not been initiated by the Crown, and the Crown has acted as defendant or respondent in these files.
There are currently approximately 532 legal claims with expenditures over $100,000 involving CIRNAC and/or ISC. The total internal legal cost on these legal claims is $298.6 million, excluding disbursements and legal agent costs.