Indigenous services minister to announce $738M for health, emergency management

By Canadian Press on March 26, 2026.

OTTAWA — Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty is expected to announce today a $738.9-million funding package for First Nations health care, governance and emergency management.

A draft news release shared with The Canadian Press says Gull-Masty is earmarking $55.6 million to build up community preparedness and emergency management co-ordination, which is not directly related to fire management but could help with operations such as wildfire support.

The news comes as her department is under increased 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.

Gull-Masty is scheduled to speak in front of northern Ontario First Nations chiefs in Toronto this afternoon during a public Nishnawbe Aski Nation meeting in Toronto.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 26, 2026.

Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press