{"id":102283,"date":"2026-02-25T11:12:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T16:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=102283"},"modified":"2026-02-25T11:12:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T16:12:22","slug":"federal-spending-on-indigenous-canadians-is-about-to-soar-due-to-300000-potential-new-registrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/federal-spending-on-indigenous-canadians-is-about-to-soar-due-to-300000-potential-new-registrants\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal spending on Indigenous Canadians is about to soar due to 300,000 potential new registrants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy Health benefits alone could cost another billion dollars2025 ended with the country overlooking the most wide-reaching potential change to come to Indigenous law in 40 years. The question of who can be registered as a legal \u201cIndian,\u201d to use the proper constitutional language, has been contentious as far back as this octogenarian can remember. The federal government, under the Brian Mulroney government, led a major change in 1985 to, quite properly, promote equality between Indian men and women in obtaining status. But other changes aimed at cleaning up issues in the Indian Act also created new dilemmas, making sections 6 through 8 of the Indian Act almost impossible for the layman to decipher. Last year, the federal government introduced Bill S-2, \u201cAn Act to amend&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F02%2F25%2Ffederal-spending-on-indigenous-canadians-is-about-to-soar-due-to-300000-potential-new-registrants%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy Health benefits alone could cost another billion dollars2025 ended with the country overlooking the most wide-reaching potential change to come to Indigenous law in 40 years. The question of who can be registered as a legal \u201cIndian,\u201d to use the proper constitutional language, has been contentious as far back as this octogenarian can remember. The federal government, under the Brian Mulroney government, led a major change in 1985 to, quite properly, promote equality between Indian men and women in obtaining status. But other changes aimed at cleaning up issues in the Indian Act also created new dilemmas, making sections 6 through 8 of the Indian Act almost impossible for the layman to decipher. Last year, the federal government introduced Bill S-2, \u201cAn Act to amend... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F02%2F25%2Ffederal-spending-on-indigenous-canadians-is-about-to-soar-due-to-300000-potential-new-registrants%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Federal spending on Indigenous Canadians is about to soar due to 300,000 potential new registrants - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/federal-spending-on-indigenous-canadians-is-about-to-soar-due-to-300000-potential-new-registrants\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Federal spending on Indigenous Canadians is about to soar due to 300,000 potential new registrants - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy Health benefits alone could cost another billion dollars2025 ended with the country overlooking the most wide-reaching potential change to come to Indigenous law in 40 years. The question of who can be registered as a legal \u201cIndian,\u201d to use the proper constitutional language, has been contentious as far back as this octogenarian can remember. The federal government, under the Brian Mulroney government, led a major change in 1985 to, quite properly, promote equality between Indian men and women in obtaining status. But other changes aimed at cleaning up issues in the Indian Act also created new dilemmas, making sections 6 through 8 of the Indian Act almost impossible for the layman to decipher. Last year, the federal government introduced Bill S-2, \u201cAn Act to amend\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/federal-spending-on-indigenous-canadians-is-about-to-soar-due-to-300000-potential-new-registrants\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-25T16:12:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sandy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sandy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/25\\\/federal-spending-on-indigenous-canadians-is-about-to-soar-due-to-300000-potential-new-registrants\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/25\\\/federal-spending-on-indigenous-canadians-is-about-to-soar-due-to-300000-potential-new-registrants\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sandy\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/12f8efd2d424c9cd820883abe58a7d4b\"},\"headline\":\"Federal spending on Indigenous Canadians is about to soar due to 300,000 potential new registrants\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-25T16:12:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/25\\\/federal-spending-on-indigenous-canadians-is-about-to-soar-due-to-300000-potential-new-registrants\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":984,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Local News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/25\\\/federal-spending-on-indigenous-canadians-is-about-to-soar-due-to-300000-potential-new-registrants\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/25\\\/federal-spending-on-indigenous-canadians-is-about-to-soar-due-to-300000-potential-new-registrants\\\/\",\"name\":\"Federal spending on Indigenous Canadians is about to soar due to 300,000 potential new registrants - 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