In 2024, which of the 94 TRC Calls to Action have had the most success?
Press Release
In 2024, which of the 94 TRC Calls to Action have had the most success?
INDIGENOUS WATCHDOG: HAMILTON – April 1, 2025
Indigenous Watchdog was designed to reflect both a macro view – Government Commitments to Truth and Reconciliation – and a micro view – Actions and Commitments. The macro view highlights what the various governments “say they are committed to doing” and the micro view identifies “the specifics of what they are actually doing”. The resulting comparison helps to answer the question: Are the federal, provincial and territory governments living up to their commitments?
No. They are not.
In 2024, all levels of government – federal, provincial and territory combined – made 150 “Government Commitments to Truth and Reconciliation”: 77% were included in:
- Treaty Relationships and Indigenous Rights: 38 commitments (25%)
- Financial and Budgets: 33 commitments (22%)
- Agreements: 20 commitments (13%)
- Political: 15 commitments (10%)
- Legislation: 10 commitments (7%)
Immediate observations:
- Three of the provinces with the greatest number of Indigenous people (37% based on 2021 census) are in the bottom five with the least number of substantive commitments (6%):
- Alberta # 3 with 284,465: 3 commitments
- Saskatchewan # 5 with 187,890: 2 commitments
- Québec # 6 with 205,010: 4 commitments
- Three of the provinces with the largest number of Indigenous people (52% based on 2021 census) accounted for 29% of the 150 total commitments:
- Ontario # 1 with 406,590: 16 commitments
- BC # 2 with 290,210: 15 Commitments
- Manitoba # 4 with 237,190: 12 commitments
Which Calls to Action themes have progressed the most?
401 of the 452 positive actions and commitments (89% of the total) are distributed as follows across the following 12 of 22 Calls to Action themes:
| Theme | Total | CA | MB | ON | BC | AB | SK | QC | NU | YK | NT | NS | NL | NB | PE |
| Health | 96 | 25 | 7 | 22 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Justice Equity in Legal System |
93 1 |
28 0 |
22 0 |
6 1 |
6 0 |
4 0 |
8 0 |
2 0 |
1 0 |
3 0 |
1 0 |
4 0 |
5 0 |
2 0 |
1 0 |
| Education Education for Reconciliation |
43 10 |
16 0 |
5 2 |
1 0 |
3 1 |
1 3 |
2 1 |
3 1 |
3 0 |
4 0 |
1 1 |
1 1 |
2 0 |
1 0 |
0 0 |
| Child Welfare | 32 | 17 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Language & Culture | 21 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 296 | 91 | 43 | 38 | 17 | 16 | 18 | 14 | 11 | 16 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 1 | |
| Missing Children | 41 | 10 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Sports & Reconciliation | 9 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Museum and Archives | 6 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Commemorate | 7 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Business & Reconciliation | 42 | 11 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 105 | 29 | 5 | 10 | 13 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
11 Calls to Action (C2A) account for 270 of the 452 positive actions and commitments or 60% of the total.
| C2A | Total | Comment | |
| 18 | Health | 64 | Government recognition of Indigenous rights to health (51): primarily CA (15) and ON (8), MB (5), YT (5), AB (4), BC (4) |
| 41 | Justice | 61 | Govt. commitments to MMIWG+ (24): Primarily CA (9), MB (11); SK (2); Govt. commitments to preventing violence against Indigenous women (16): Primarily Canada (6), MB (2), NL (2) |
| 92 | Business | 37 | Government Programs (37), Individual Business Initiatives (52) |
| 13 | Language | 17 | Government actions to support Indigenous languages (10): CA (3), NT (2), NU (2), ON (2); Commitments to Indigenous languages (5): ON (2), CA (1), MB (1), NU (1) |
| 1 | Child Welfare | 16 | Reducing # of children-in-care (3): AB (1), MB (1), NU (1); Government commitments to child welfare (3): CA (2), MB (1) |
| 7 | Education | 16 | Commitments to C2A # 7 (14): Primarily Canada (4), BC (2), QC (2) |
| 75 | Missing Children | 15 | Office of Special Interlocutor (14): All jurisdictions |
| 30 | Justice | 12 | Govt. actions to reduce over-representation (7): CA (2), SK (2); MB (1), NS (1), ON (1); Actions to reduce over-representation (3): MB (1), NB (1), ON (1) |
| 4 | Child Welfare | 11 | Government commitments to child welfare (7): CA (4), NT (2), BC (1) |
| 21 | Health | 11 | Investments in Indigenous healing centres (11): Primarily CA (4), ON (2) |
| 12 | Education | 10 | Provincial, territory commitment to Early Childhood Education (10): Primarily CA (5) |
Immediate Observations from the above:
- Just two Calls to Action account for 28% of the total:
- C2A # 18 accounts for 67% of the 7 Health Calls to Action
- C2A # 41 accounts for 66% of the 18 Justice Calls to Action
- Virtually every jurisdiction (10 of 14) is making some commitment to either MMIWG+ or reducing gender-based violence against Indigenous women and human trafficking
- The National Children’s Chiefs Committee has been established to negotiate with Canada on the rejected $47.8B child welfare deal over a number of unresolved issues
- There were only 3 positive steps to reduce the over-representation of Indigenous children in child-welfare.
- There were only 10 steps across all jurisdictions to reduce over-representation of Indigenous people in jails
- The 37 “Government Programs” in Business and Reconciliation rank # 4 in the total number of positive actions and commitments across ALL Calls to Action. This reinforces the shift of reconciliation to “economic” reconciliation which has more to do with trades training and jobs
10 years after the release of the TRC Summary Report in June 2015: 6 of the Legacy Calls to Action are still STALLED and 12 have NOT STARTED – that’s 43% of the foundational Calls to Action in Child Welfare (2 of 5), Education (4 of 7), Language and Culture (2 of 5), health (3 of 7) and Justice (7 of 18).
Click on the following link to read the full report that has much more detailed information:
