Federal budget ignores Indigenous infrastructure needs: Assembly of First Nations – Toronto Star

April 17, 2024

OTTAWA – The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations is denouncing a federal budget that she says all but ignores the needs of the communities she represents.

The federal government is neglecting a long-standing promise to close the widening First Nations infrastructure gap by 2030, Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said Wednesday in Ottawa.

And her fellow chiefs are angry that they were not consulted on the federal government’s plans to transform federal land into housing for Canadians.

“Now, more than ever, we need to be working together in a good way to make sure First Nations and Canada achieve our full potential by working together and continuing on the path of reconciliation,” Woodhouse Nepinak said.

“Which, unfortunately, I did not hear in the speech yesterday.”

Neither Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s 3,500-word budget speech nor Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s remarks to caucus Wednesday made mention of reconciliation or Indigenous Peoples.

Woodhouse Nepinak called Freeland’s speech “alarming.”

Read More: https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/federal-budget-ignores-indigenous-infrastructure-needs-assembly-of-first-nations/article_cc3cebb1-3758-535e-91f4-ba7693203ac1.html