10 Year Grant Funding

First Nations have always initiated their projects with the help of its own resources and suffered from a lack of support from the Canadian Federal and Provincial Governments. While several schemes have been launched or initiated in recent years, it can be incredibly difficult to navigate the different funding programs. It takes a considerable amount of time and work to gain an understanding of the available services, implementation processes, and rights and responsibilities of nations upon receipt of those funds. To make ease to all such steps and processes, a 10-year grant is introduced by the Federal Government.

10 Year Grant.

With input from the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), Federal Government introduced 10 Year grant in April 2019 to provide a longer funding period to First Nations across Canada which enables them to allocate and use such funds based on their priorities and requirements. The fund also claims to enable unspent funds to be maintained by First Nations and to reduce the regulatory and reporting burdens of the Community. By supplying funds over a 10-year span, it is argued that this would provide a clearer view of the distribution of funds to a Community, supplying them with long-term planning advantage. It is believed that the 10-year grant funding will support First Nations to build stronger communities over the long term as it will allow them to plan over several years.

First Nations can use this fund for a wide range of services including but not limited to:

  • Social Development

  • Land & Economic Development

  • Health

  • Education

  • Governance

  • Infrastructure

  • Child safety

  • Community Development.

(Indigenous Services Canada, 2019)

With a wide range of services, the grant also entitles significant benefits like,

  • A 10-year term (most contribution agreements have shorter terms).

  • More flexible in terms of delivering services, design, allocation, and planning of available and unspent funds.

  • Less administrative and reporting burden compare to most of the grants.

  • Annual escalation based on inflation and population growth starting in 2020 (Indigenous Services Canada, 2019)

But is it available for every Community? or Does it come with certain eligibility requirements?

Assembly of First Nations (AFN) and First Nations Financial Management Board (FMB), co-developed the eligibility criteria to avail this fund. To qualify for this grant, the applicant must have a Financial Administration Law or Bylaw in force at the time of the application and, among other conditions, undergo a Financial Performance Analysis based on the most recent 5-year financial statements. More specifically, in order to avail the 10-year grant, First Nations should meet the following criteria:

  • Must have in place a financial administration law

  • First Nations applying for the grant would be asked to ensure that certain provisions of their financial administration law are supported by policies and procedures, where required, and have been legally brought into force

  • A First Nation government's financial statements for the preceding 5-year period must be in substantial compliance with certain financial performance standards as of March 31, 2019 (Indigenous Services Canada, 2019)

For a better understanding of how the 10-year funding process works, FMB provides a diagram presentation. ("Eligibility Criteria", 2020)

("Eligibility Criteria", 2020) Eligibility Criteria. (2020). Retrieved 6 February 2020, from https://fnfmb.com/en/10-year-grant/eligibility-criteria

("Eligibility Criteria", 2020) Eligibility Criteria. (2020). Retrieved 6 February 2020, from https://fnfmb.com/en/10-year-grant/eligibility-criteria

While this grant gave hopes to many, at the same time launch of this funding gave rise to many questions pertaining to what exactly the difference is between the block funding and new 10-year funding. Indigenous Services Canada provides a brief description of what are some potential differences between the two:

  • Block funding has a five-year term

  • block funding is a contribution, not a grant, and as such, it comes with more administrative and reporting requirements, and limitations on eligible expenditures.

  • block funding recipients must complete unexpended funding plans at the end of the agreement

  • block funding generally does not permit program redesign or provide the flexibility to set the standards and levels of service associated with these programs

  • block funding recipients are subject to department-initiated recipient audits and compliance reviews. (Indigenous Services Canada, 2019)

What Next?

First Nations Financial Management Board (FMB) will support First Nations during the 10-year Grant funding application process. They will coordinate with First Nations against eligibility criteria and will provide an assessment report if they meet the eligibility or not. Although the final decision on whether to approve the grant or not lies under the authority of Indigenous Services Canada (ISC).

Even with information available through various Federal and Provincial authorities, there are some unanswered questions like, how far will it prove to be beneficial for the Indigenous Communities? How the Communities will utilize it? And What could be the potential drawbacks of the said Grant?

With that, we look forward to the success of the grant and hope that this information can help you and your Community to make strategic and informed decisions around the 10-year grant.

References

WRITTEN BY KARAN VERMA

Zain NayaniEconomic Development, First Nations, FundingComment