The Indian Act has got to go – The Chronicle Journal

JUSTIN Trudeau’s solution to ages of dense, top-down governance of Canada’s complex Indigenous file is to double the bureaucracy. What? Is splitting the existing federal department in two really the best way to speed up solutions to hundreds of longstanding problems and outstanding complaints? Maybe.

Ottawa veteran Carolyn Bennett takes over at the new Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs department to tackle nearly 100 outstanding land claims while working to dismantle the Indian Act while Jane Philpott moves from Health to the new Indigenous Services ministry to oversee programs for status Indians like housing and education.

It is Bennett’s plan to begin to tear down the Indian Act that holds the most promise and presents the biggest challenge. It has been tried before.