The Indigenous Justice Program supports Indigenous community-based justice programs that offer alternatives to mainstream justice processes in appropriate circumstances. Across Canada, participants of Indigenous Justice Program-funded programs were 43% less likely to re-offend after one year and 37% less likely to re-offend after eight years in comparison to non-participants.

In November 2018, federal, provincial and territorial Justice and Public Safety Ministers agreed to increase the use of restorative justice processes by a minimum target of 5% per jurisdiction, where possible, over the next 3 years.

Community-Based Justice Fund

Supports community-based justice programs in partnership with Indigenous communities. Programs are cost-shared with provincial and territorial governments and designed to reflect the culture and values of the communities in which they are situated. The IJP currently funds 197 community-based programs that serve over 750 communities.

Capacity Building Fund

The objectives of the Capacity-Building Fund are:

• to support the training and/or developmental needs of Indigenous communities that currently do not have community-based justice programs;
• to supplement the on-going training needs of current community-based justice programs where the cost-shared budget does not adequately meet these needs, including supporting evaluation activities, data collection, sharing of best practices and useful models;
• to support activities targeted at improved community reporting in IJP communities and the development of data management systems;
• to support the development of new justice programs, paying particular attention to:
• the current geographic/regional imbalance in programming;
• the commitment to develop new programs in the under-represented program models, such as dispute resolution for civil and family/child welfare; and,
• to support one-time or annual events and initiatives (as opposed to on-going projects and programs) that build bridges, trust and partnerships between the mainstream justice system and Indigenous communities.

The Department of Justice is NOT currently accepting applications for the Capacity Building Fund.