“The issue of compensation for damaged children has been affected by the system for 17 years [des services sociaux] was shoveled forward again and again,” Manitoba First Nations Assembly regional chief Cindy Woodhouse said at a news conference.

An initial $20 billion deal, struck in January 2022, was rejected by Canada’s Human Rights Tribunal for excluding certain children who were entitled to compensation. So federal and First Nations officials returned to the negotiating table to reach an agreement that would include an additional $3 billion.

“We’re talking, yes, today, even from a global perspective, of historical totals, but we’re also talking of historical wrongs that go back to the 1990s,” Secretary of State for Crown-Indigenous Relations Marc Miller said at a Conference.

For decades, hundreds of thousands of children have been taken from their families by social services because of discrimination. About 300,000 children, young adults and their families will have access to this money. The regulation applies to those who are born on 01.01^ah April 1991 to March 31, 2022. Their parents or legal guardians can also receive compensation.

The envelope will also be used for those who have not received the health care they should have received due to jurisdictional disputes before and after the House of Commons passed the Jordan Principle. It stipulated that when there is a dispute between the federal government and a provincial government or between two departments over who should foot the bill, Aboriginal children should first receive the services they need. However, the federal government has been interpreting them narrowly for years.

The agreement must be ratified by both the Canadian Human Rights Court and the Federal Court. Both bodies had ruled in favor of Aboriginal children when presented with the dispute between First Nations and the federal government.