{"id":98733,"date":"2025-10-30T10:26:03","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T14:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=98733"},"modified":"2025-10-30T10:26:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T14:26:03","slug":"first-nations-mental-health-funding-not-contingent-on-development-deals-ford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/30\/first-nations-mental-health-funding-not-contingent-on-development-deals-ford\/","title":{"rendered":"First Nations mental health funding not contingent on development deals: Ford"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Matt Prokopchuk, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, TBnewswatch.com TORONTO \u2014 Ontario\u2019s premier and Indigenous affairs minister say support for mental health in First Nations is not tied to signing resource development deals. Doug Ford and Greg Rickford were among those on hand at Queen\u2019s Park on Oct. 29 to sign a new partnership agreement with Webequie First Nation that will see the remote community submit its provincial environmental assessment for a long-planned road from its airport to the Ring of Fire area in January 2026. The deal also provides Webequie with up to $39.5 million \u2014 about one third of which Rickford told a news conference was \u201cimmediate.\u201d That, he said, included $1.5 million for mental health supports and \u201ccommunity well-being activities\u201d Webequie reportedly asked for during negotiations. Taking questions… <\/p>\n

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By Matt Prokopchuk, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, TBnewswatch.com TORONTO \u2014 Ontario\u2019s premier and Indigenous affairs minister say support for mental health in First Nations is not tied to signing resource development deals. Doug Ford and Greg Rickford were among those on hand at Queen\u2019s Park on Oct. 29 to sign a new partnership agreement with Webequie First Nation that will see the remote community submit its provincial environmental assessment for a long-planned road from its airport to the Ring of Fire area in January 2026. The deal also provides Webequie with up to $39.5 million \u2014 about one third of which Rickford told a news conference was \u201cimmediate.\u201d That, he said, included $1.5 million for mental health supports and \u201ccommunity well-being activities\u201d Webequie reportedly asked for during negotiations. Taking questions... <\/p>\n

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Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"\nFirst Nations mental health funding not contingent on development deals: Ford - 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\/2025\/10\/30\/first-nations-mental-health-funding-not-contingent-on-development-deals-ford\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"First Nations mental health funding not contingent on development deals: Ford - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Matt Prokopchuk, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, TBnewswatch.com TORONTO \u2014 Ontario\u2019s premier and Indigenous affairs minister say support for mental health in First Nations is not tied to signing resource development deals. 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