OTTAWA — Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty announced on Thursday a $738.9-million funding package for First Nations health care, governance and emergency management.
She is earmarking $55.6 million to build up community preparedness and emergency management co-ordination. The funds are not directly related to fire management but could help with operations such as wildfire support.
Gull-Masty’s department is under heavy pressure from First Nations leaders in northern Ontario who say her department is underfunding on-reserve fire services, resulting in unnecessary deaths.
On Monday, a house fire in a northwestern Ontario community took the life of Chief Donny Morris’s three-year-old grandson and left two others with serious injuries.
The Independent First Nations Alliance, a group of five First Nations that includes Morris’s own community, filed a Canadian Human Rights Commission complaint in August 2025 alleging Indigenous Services Canada was systemically discriminating against their communities by underfunding on-reserve fire services.
The First Nations say that case has been languishing ever since and they have not received updates from the commission since they asked for one nine weeks after they submitted their complaint. They have called on the federal auditor general to investigate the commission.
The Canadian Press has reached out to the Canadian Human Rights Commission for comment but has not yet received a response.
Speaking in front of northern Ontario First Nations chiefs in Toronto for a Nishnawbe Aski Nation meeting, Gull-Masty said the new funding will help provide First Nations with the tools and resources they need to support their communities.
“We want to ensure that we are working with you to continue delivering services and advancing priorities,” she said. “Especially the ones we know are at the heart of every community, issues like housing and building the future of your communities.”
The funding package includes $400 million over five years for health services and digital health tools in remote communities, including supports for nurses.
Chief Clifford Bull of Lac Seul First Nation, a member community of the Independent First Nations Alliance, told The Canadian Press Thursday the loss of Morris’s grandson was “devastating” and could have been prevented if communities had proper fire services and training.
“Our people continue to face real risks because of that. What we’re saying is enough is enough,” he said.
“We have been clear that lives are at risk if these conditions continue. This is not something that came as a surprise to our communities … How many more children have to die before something is done about this?”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 26, 2026.
Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press
