The head of an Indigenous child-care provider in Sault Ste. Marie is advising families that all funding previously approved through Jordan’s Principle is not being renewed.
That means approximately 600 children, parents and caretakers throughout the Algoma District that have applied for funding through Waabinong Head Start Resource Centre are being denied access to educational supports and resources.
Some of those supports include speech therapy, educational assistants and food security programming aimed at helping people living under the poverty line, to name a few — after funding was halted by the federal government effective March 31.
Three employees that assisted with processing Jordan’s Principle applications have since been laid off by the child-care provider as a result of the cuts, according to Waabinong Head Start’s executive director.
“Our families need to know as much as we're trying, we have nothing to offer,” Kevin Tegosh told SooToday.
“There's nothing here — there's no more funding.”
Staff and administration at Waabinong will now have to reapply for all funding that had been flowing through Waabinong to service providers in order to provide a wide range of services for families.
Tegosh pointed to the funding for applied behaviour analysis as an example of the cutbacks to Jordan’s Principle.
Waabinong applied for $1.2 million in funding back in June 2024, but didn’t receive a response from the federal government until this past February — only to learn it had been approved for just $540,000.
Half a dozen children were forced to stay home from school for about two weeks until the federal government kicked in more than $163,000 for applied behaviour analysis services to continue until the end of the school year.
That leaves about $600,000 outstanding, added Tegosh, with no clear path to paying off the remaining balance through Jordan’s Principle.
The matter has now been escalated to a national review committee.
“Personally, I feel they created this mess just to pull the blanket out from underneath everybody — to say you're reapplying for everything,” said Tegosh.
“It doesn't matter when you got approval for the funding, you have to reapply for it.”
Tegosh said the cutbacks at Waabinong are "impacting our parents the most."
“This component plays a big role in providing support to our program. One of the things that they were providing for us was transportation — they had purchased us some vans, and we had gotten some drivers.
"All that is on hold now," he said.
Tegosh openly wondered if the sweeping changes to Jordan’s Principle are intended to set up would-be recipients for failure.
“If they want this program to end, they're going about it in the right way,” he said.
Jordan's Principle is named after Jordan River Anderson, a Manitoba boy with multiple disabilities who died in hospital waiting for the province and Ottawa to decide who should pay for health supports that would allow him to go home.
It stems from a human rights complaint filed by the Assembly of First Nations and the First Nations Family and Caring Society in 2007. They argued First Nations children were being denied equal services to other children as a result of the constant jurisdictional disputes.
Sweeping changes to the funding eligibility announced by Canada in February included barring funding approvals under Jordan's Principle for home renovations, sporting events, international travel, non-medical supports or school-related requests unless required to ensure equality with kids who are not First Nations.
The changes come almost a year after the federal government argued before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal that requests were being made for a number of non-urgent things including gaming consoles and bicycles.
“It's up to them who they approve — they approve all this,” Tegosh said.
“It was government workers, but now it's making it sound like we're asking for frivolous stuff here that should have never been approved, and maybe some of it shouldn't have been.
“But then again, take ownership and say ‘our workers approved it.’"
Tegosh said the changes to funding eligibility under Jordan’s Principle are now leading to a number of headaches for staff – because of a lack of workers to help people navigate the application process for Jordan’s Principle, which now has more stringent funding criteria.
“They're asking me to provide additional information for this application that was submitted back in 2021, knowing full well nobody is working for Jordan's Principle,” Tegosh said.
“They take no responsibility for the stuff that's happening.”
Terry Sheehan, MP for Sault Ste. Marie – Algoma, was asked about the cutbacks at Waabinong last week, following news that more than 150 employees at Nogdawindamin are being terminated because of the changes to Jordan’s Principle.
“First Nation kids are first and foremost on our mind, making sure they receive the services that are required, because it’s something that I totally believe in, and I’m totally committed to it,” Sheehan told SooToday at the time.
“I’m going to work within the Liberal caucus to make sure that happens.”
– with files from The Canadian Press