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Jordan’s Principle gets $1.55B from Ottawa, but operational changes still a challenge
Urgent requests are down to roughly 400 left in the queue to be responded, down from 5,000 last year, says federal minister
After a year of uncertainty, job losses and service reductions in the NWT, the federal government has committed $1.55 billion to renew Jordan’s Principle until March 31, 2027.
However, there is still an application backlog — urgent requests are down to 400 from 5,000 last year — and details on how the funding will translate into better services for First Nations children and families are still lacking.
“We will continue working with First Nations leadership and families to ensure Jordan’s Principle remains predictable, practical, and grounded in fairness and respect,” says Indigenous Services Minister Minister Mandy Gull-Masty.
Ottawa says the funding renewal “provides immediate stability for families and enables communities to deliver services with confidence,” as efforts to reform Jordan’s Principle in partnership with First Nations leadership and families continue.
Jordan’s Principle was designed to provide First Nations children the same essential government services, regardless of where they live.
It allows families to submit requests for needs like medical and mental health services, educational supports, physiotherapy and more.
In February 2025, Indigenous Services Canada issued the Jordan’s Principle Operational Bulletin, which introduced significant changes to how requests would be processed, aiming for increased consistency and control over services First Nations children can access.
Those stricter, more defined criteria for approving products created a logjam that saw applications linger for months and, as happened in the NWT, layoffs and uncertainty.
“I do think that it really needs some adjustment and alignment to be sure that it is conducive to the needs of the parents and children that are applying,” Gull-Masty said in an interview with CKLB after the funding announcement.
“So some of the space that we’re looking at in areas of reform … (we) are really trying to ensure that when children with highly complex medical needs are applying, that we’re removing the administrative barriers of continuously applying every single year,” she said.
“We know that one of the components that’s of challenge in Jordan’s principle is the backlog. I try to be very transparent and speak honestly to it. This is something that we’re working on.”
Gull-Masty said urgent requests are down to roughly 400 left in the queue to be responded, down from 5,000 last year.
“This is a huge, huge program — it’s a national process of receiving applications. Some of them are group applications. Some of them are individual applications. We fund and finance hundreds of millions of services every year, trying to be sure that the program is more efficient, that the process is more efficient, that we’re able to respond to clients in time.
“That is something that I’m pushing my team really, really hard to create, and we are getting incredible feedback and direction from families and even children who are using Jordan’s Principle on how to align what we are doing here at Indigenous Services Canada to meet their needs.”
Gull-Masty said when Jordan’s Principle was set up a decade ago, “there was really a lack of definition and clarity, and it left the parameters very, very open and … we were funding items that were really focused on delivery of service to children with special needs.
“It expanded into places where, you know, unfortunately, some individuals decided to submit things that did not truly align with what the intention of the Principal was.”
