3 Indigenous police services in northern Ontario could cease operating due to lack of funding

Three Indigenous police services that serve 45 First Nations across northern Ontario say they are at risk of shutting down due to a lack of  funding. 

The Treaty Three Police Service, UCCM Anishnaabe Police Service and Anishinabek Police Service have not received funding from the federal government since March 31, as negotiations with Ottawa are at an impasse.

"They [the police services] no longer have any money to pay the employees or coverage of the employees," said Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Reg Niganobe.

"So that'll result in not having any police service within the First Nations."

Collectively, the three police services serve around 30,000 people across northern Ontario.

The First Nations and Inuit Policing Program normally covers operating costs for the three police services. The federal government administers the program and provides 52 per cent of the funding. The province of Ontario provides 48 per cent of the funding, and the respective First Nation communities also provide a small amount of additional funding.

The Anishinabek Nation Chiefs-in-Assembly declared a state of emergency on June 7 in response to the lack of funding.

"It's both sad and disheartening," Niganobe said.

"They have never been funded adequately. They've always been year-to-year negotiations or every few years new negotiations just to get the adequate service that's needed and the adequate funding that's needed."

Now, the Indigenous Police Chiefs of Ontario are seeking an injunction for the three police services to get emergency funding so they can keep paying their officers.

They've also filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission over a funding formula that lawyer Julian Falconer, who represents the Indigenous Police Chiefs of Ontario, has called "discriminatory and inequitable."

I mean, it's absolutely bizarre, draconian and racist.- Julian Falconer, counsel, Indigenous Police Chiefs of Ontario

Falconer said the Indigenous police services don't get funding from the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program for special units, such as major crime units and domestic assault units.

He said the program's funding agreement also prohibits them from any expenditures in the form of loans for financing to own infrastructure and from spending their funding on legal representation to interpret the funding agreements.

Falconer said a Federal Court decision in January 2022, along with decisions by the Quebec Court of Appeal, recognized the funding model for Indigenous police services in Canada "operates in an arbitrary and discriminatory fashion."

"I mean, it's absolutely bizarre, draconian and racist, and Canada has no explanation for this other than those are the rules," he said.

If the three police services don't get emergency funding, Falconer said, there won't be any other options to fill the policing gap they leave.

"There is no way that there is an alternative policing agency available," he said.

"The communities do not accept the legitimacy of the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) coming into their communities uninvited."

CBC News contacted Public Safety Canada for comment but had not yet received a response at time of publication.