2023-2024 Operating context

In the journey toward reconciliation, Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) acknowledges the rights, respect, cooperation, and partnership of Indigenous partners. ISC aims to support Indigenous communities in improving socio-economic conditions, quality of life, safety, and access to high quality services. Indigenous Peoples have faced historic discrimination due to institutional and systemic racism and continue to experience the lasting impacts in their everyday lives. The Government of Canada acknowledges that the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and the Crown was built on colonial structures that have contributed to the unacceptable socio-economic gaps that exist today.

Acknowledgement of these structures and harms are required to advance reconciliation with Indigenous partners. The path to systemic change must continue to progress and we must move more quickly toward fulfilling the inherent right of Indigenous communities as self-determining nations. In order to see true, meaningful, and long lasting results toward fulfilling ISC's organizational mandate, the transfer of the service delivery to Indigenous communities is necessary.

ISC's mandate is delivered through the Core Responsibility of Indigenous Well-Being and Self-Determination. The work to closing socio-economic gaps and transferring the responsibility of services to communities is focused on six areas where the Department provides services: Health; Children and Families; Education; Infrastructure and Environments; Economic Development; and Governance.

The department is also guided by the Government of Canada's commitment to supporting the implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Calls for Justice, and Canada's Action Plan to supporting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.

ISC's unique mandate is shaped by co-development with Indigenous partners. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, which affirms Article 18 of the Declaration, states that "Indigenous Peoples have the right to participate in decision-making in matters which would affect their rights, through representatives chosen by themselves in accordance with their procedures, as well as to maintain and develop their Indigenous decision-making institutions." The department recognizes and respects that Indigenous partners have articulated expectations around co-development, including principles and best practices. As ISC works to fulfill its mandate, the principles of co-developed results and measurement strategies, and key frameworks such as the National Outcome-Based Framework and the Measuring to Thrive Framework, guide ISC's work. The department is committed to advancing Indigenous self-determination and building relationships with Indigenous partners: Nation-to-Nation, government-to-government and between Crown and Inuit.

ISC will continue to shape the services it offers in collaboration with Indigenous Peoples through ongoing engagement, communication, and consultation, all while recognizing the rights of Indigenous Peoples and the distinctions among First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities.