Outdated infrastructure funding rules hold First Nations back

Across our communities, our people are coming home. Families are returning after generations of displacement. Young people want to build their futures where they belong. But, too often, they are returning to communities that still do not have the housing, roads, water systems, and basic infrastructure needed to support that return.

Canada now has a choice: design the next generation of First Nations infrastructure financing to support this rebuilding, or allow outdated funding rules to keep holding our communities back.

That choice is not abstract for us. In northern Ontario, Animbiigoo Zaagi’igan Anishinaabek, Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek, and Lac des Mille Lacs First Nation are living this reality. For the first time in decades, we are planning not for decline, but for renewal.

For our nations, this is not simply a moment of growth. It is a moment of rebuilding—of restoring what was disrupted and creating the conditions for our people to live, return, and grow.

Lands have been recognized, capital planning has been undertaken, and governance is in place. We are ready to build the community infrastructure our people need.

What stands in the way is not readiness. It is the system.

Much of the current infrastructure funding system, administered through Indigenous Services Canada, relies on population-based formulas and annual program funding. Those tools do not reflect the realities of nations restoring communities and services, especially where populations are smaller or dispersed. In too many cases, they do not provide funding at the scale required, or they exclude communities like ours altogether.

Current funding is too often fragmented, leaving communities to build in pieces over many years. That does not work when a nation is trying to rebuild a community.

Rebuilding requires co-ordinated investment across housing, water, transportation, and other essential infrastructure. That is why our communities have called for tools that finance and build infrastructure at scale, rather than forcing nations to rely on a one-project-at-a-time, pay-as-you-go system.

In Budget 2025, Canada signaled its intent to explore an infrastructure monetization pilot that could help First Nations build sooner. In this type of model, an Indigenous financial institution such as the First Nations Finance Authority (FNFA) could raise upfront capital for eligible infrastructure, while Canada makes structured long-term payments to service those obligations over time. The result is simple: participating nations could move from planning to construction now, instead of waiting through years of incremental annual approvals. That recognition matters because it confirms what our nations have long known: the old tools are insufficient.

As members of the FNFA, our nations support this direction and have advocated for this model for more than a decade. But the pilot will only succeed if it is designed to overcome the barriers that existing programs have created for smaller nations, rebuilding nations, and nations whose needs do not fit neatly into legacy categories. 

It must not reproduce the same limits that have held communities back for decades: population-based formulas, narrow eligibility rules, annual approvals, and rigid restrictions on what kinds of projects can be supported and where they can be located.

It should be Indigenous-led, grounded in community priorities, and flexible enough to support the full infrastructure required for rebuilding, including housing-enabling infrastructure, water and wastewater systems, roads, and revenue-generating assets on or off reserve where they help communities grow. Inclusion should be based on readiness, need, and the ability to deliver—not rigid categories that exclude nations before they even get to the table.

We are not asking for a different path. We are asking to be included in the one Canada is already building.

Through a flexible pilot supported by Indigenous financial institutions such as the FNFA, our nations could access the upfront capital needed to move from planning to construction now instead of waiting through years of annual approvals and program cycles.

That would allow urgent priorities such as water and wastewater systems to be delivered alongside housing, roads, and other infrastructure our communities need to function and grow.

Canada must now put in place a long-term framework that lets this model function as intended, supports Indigenous financial institutions to do this work at scale, and includes nations in its design and delivery so the pilot reflects real conditions and can grow over time.

This is not only about closing an infrastructure gap. It is about creating the conditions for long-term growth. When First Nations can build, the benefits extend beyond our communities. These are smart investments that support stronger communities, stronger regional economies, and stronger partnerships. 

Our nations are ready. Budget 2025 opened the door to change. Now Canada must decide whether that door will be open wide enough for rebuilding Nations to walk through—or whether outdated funding models will continue to stand in the way of our people’s future.

Chief Yvette Metansinine of Animbiigoo Zaagi'igan Anishinaabek, Chief Paul Gladu of Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek, and Chief Judy Whitecloud of Lac des Mille Lacs First Nation are leaders of three First Nations advancing a Nation Rebuild approach for their communities and future generations.

The Hill Times