In the 2010 Federal Budget under Stephen Harper, the government decided not to renew funding for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. The organization had to terminate partnership with over 120 community services that aid large populations of Aboriginal peoples who have suffered through traumas from the Indian Residential School System.

The Aboriginal Healing Foundation (AHF) was an Ottawa-based national, non-profit corporation established in 1998 with a $350 million fund to support community-based healing initiatives that address the intergenerational legacy of physical and sexual abuse suffered in Canada’s Indian residential School System. Since 1998 the AHF has provided over 1,300 grants to First Nations, Inuit and Métis projects — in urban, rural and isolated communities — across the country.

The 2010 budget concluded that $199 million would be directed towards Health Canada to continue to assist former students and their families who have experienced abuse in the Residential School System. But Aboriginal leaders assert that those programs are not as effective or unique in their purposes such as that of the AHF.

Implications and Consequences

• Democracy: While other healing initiatives exist, those who have experienced abuse or discrimination in the Indian Residential School System will no longer have access to treatment for past abuses through a foundation as comprehensive and unique as the AHF. This results in the undermining of resources for Aboriginal peoples and of the democratic commitments of successive Canadian governments, especially in light of the Prime Minister’s apology and the Truth and Reconciliation Program.
• Equality: Aboriginal groups across Canada will have lost an important source of funding for the harm done by the Indian Residential Schools. It will have an impact on particular health and support services developed by and delivered by Aboriginal peoples.
• Freedom of Speech: The termination of funding for AHF programs undercuts voices of the Aboriginal community that have shared their stories of abuse with healing centres and community groups for years. Most of these services will no longer be available and the unique opportunity for survivors to speak up will be lost.