Delivering on Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action

An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families (the Act) which came into effect January 2020, was co-developed with Indigenous partners with the aim of reducing the number of Indigenous children in care and reforming child and family services. On February 9, 2024, the Supreme Court of Canada confirmed that the Act is constitutionally valid. In doing so, the Court upheld Parliament's ability to affirm that the inherent right of self-government includes jurisdiction over child and family services.

The Indigenous Languages Act received Royal Assent on June 21, 2019, to support the reclamation, revitalization, maintaining and strengthening of Indigenous languages in Canada.

Indigenous Services Canada continues to collaborate with Statistics Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada and Indigenous organizations such as the First Nations Information Governance Centre and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami on establishing health indicators that can identify gaps and be routinely reported. The first major refresh of the health inequalities data tool was completed in 2022. The tool now includes inequalities results sorted by First Nations living off reserve, Inuit or Métis identity for 81 new and updated indicators of health outcomes and determinants of health. Upcoming Health Inequalities Reporting Initiative (HIRI) reporting will focus on the topic of social determinants of mental health inequalities in Canada.

In 2016, the Government of Canada endorsed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples without qualification and committed to its full and effective implementation. On June 21, 2021, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act received Royal Assent and immediately came into force (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act).

On April 30, 2024, Bill C-29, an Act to provide for the establishment of a national council for reconciliation, received Royal Assent and came into force on July 2, 2024, fulfilling Call to Action 53. The legislation ensures that the National Council for Reconciliation will be an independent, Indigenous-led, non-political organization that will help advance reconciliation in all sectors of Canadian society.

Pope Francis recognized the abuses experienced at residential schools that resulted in cultural destruction, loss of life, and ongoing trauma lived by Indigenous Peoples in every region of this country during his "penitential pilgrimage" visit to Canada on July 24 to 29, 2022.

On June 7, 2021, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada launched the Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund which supports Survivor-centric, community-led, and culturally appropriate efforts to locate, document, and memorialize burial sites associated with former Indian residential schools, and honour families' wishes to repatriate children's remains.