Some northeastern families fear losing access to critical therapy as Jordan's Principle applications pile up

A Sudbury mother says her heart is breaking as she waits to hear whether she'll qualify for continued federal funding through Jordan's Principle for her five-year-old autistic daughter's behavioural therapy.

Melissa Audette has been waiting since she filed the application in December 2024, and time is running out to keep her daughter moving forward.

The member of M'Chigeeng First Nation says her family initially received $130,000 for therapy through Jordan's Principle about a year ago, and her child has been transformed.

"Just the past year has been life changing," says Audette. 

"And to see the difference between her barely being able to say words, to now knowing who mom and dad is, and how old she is. She can tell you the colour of the sky, she can tell you where her belly button is. And now to go to having no support, it's crushing."

There are others in northeastern Ontario who are waiting as well. 

Laura Shilliday lives on Manitoulin Island with her five-year-old son who had been receiving visits from a speech therapist, funded through Jordan's Principle.

She says he used to only be able to use four or five words, but after much therapy, recently made a breakthrough.

"The June before he started JK, he had a language explosion," she said. "It was really rapid and quick and quite astounding."

But Shilliday says she recently learned that her son's therapist won't be visiting this summer as planned, because according to the organization that employs her, the federal funding hasn't come through to pay for her services

Shilliday, although she doesn't consider her son among the most in need, is worried he'll lose his language skills and his literacy will suffer.

Indigenous Services Canada, which has been handling funding requests, says it's dealing with an enormous backlog of about 140,000, and in March announced operational and eligibility changes, amid concerns the funding was not being used as intended.

The funding through Jordan's Principle is based on the idea that First Nations children may need extra financial support to receive the same level of social, medical and educational care as other children in Canada.

It's named after Jordan River Anderson, a Cree boy from Manitoba born with multiple disabilities in 1999.

He died at the age of five in hospital while the Canadian and Manitoba governments fought over who should pay for his home care.

In 2016, the Canadian Human Right Tribunal ordered Canada to properly implement the principle, and gave the federal government the obligation to make sure the needs of First Nations children were met.

According to a bulletin in March, Indigenous Services Canada said applicants must prove how the requested product, service or support meets the distinct needs of the First Nations child, and identify how the child either experienced gaps or delays in accessing government services, or was denied an existing government service because of their First Nation identity.

A spokesperson said in a statement to CBC that an existing or previously approved request does not guarantee new funding will be renewed or approved, but they're working hard to reduce the backlog while ensuring new requests are also being reviewed.

A private service provider based in Sault Ste. Marie says her business has been severely affected as the federal government directs all applications to a national review committee, and they pile up.

Alana MacIntyre— who runs Spark Rehab, serving the Sault, the north shore and Manitoulin Island— has been pressing the federal government for answers.

She says she has 224 applications waiting to be considered, meaning those children are not receiving services at a critical time in their development.

MacIntyre also claims that the government has not paid for services her therapists have delivered in the past few months, and hasn't been told why.

As a result, she says she's laid off staff and been forced to stop helping 85 Indigenous children.

She feels the government has strayed from the intent of Jordan's Principle with its new criteria.

"Basically the Canadian government is asking to prove that they have suffered racism and therefore they can't get the services," MacIntyre said. 

"That wasn't the intention of Jordan's Principle. The intention of Jordan's Principle is that many of these children struggle with generational trauma, with family trauma, and with other issues related to living remotely. And so they don't have access to the same services as other children or the services that are being offered don't suit their needs. And so Jordan's Principle is supposed to be there to be able to fill the gap for these children."

Rachel Pessah is another service provider, in a region where the waiting list for publicly-funded services is two to five years.

She runs Bright Spot Therapy Services based in Timmins, but offering services to Cochrane, Kapuskasing, Sudbury and remote fly-in communities.

She says 70 per cent of her clients are funded through Jordan's principle and no new applications have been approved in the last year.

"I can't provide services without approval," she said. "So It would mean that services are no longer available almost across all of the northeast. We are one of the only providers for this area. So that's hundreds of kids that will not be receiving services and may never in their lifetime. Honestly, there's not a lot of options up north."

As for why approvals have slowed so dramatically, the executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society thinks it has to do with the ponderous way the government is adjudicating applications, but also a reluctance to recognize its obligations.

Cindy Blackstock helped bring the initial fight for the federal government to be accountable to children under Jordan's Principle to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.

"The tribunal has explicitly said it's the federal government that has to pay," she said. "It can get itself reimbursed by the provinces if that's what they choose, but it's not up to children and families to have to try and run between provincial services and federal services.

"The tribunal confirmed that direction in an order that was released just in January of 2025."

As for Sudbury mother Melissa Audette, she says the weight of knowing she and her husband could never afford her daughter's behavioural therapy on their own is crushing.

She says she's afraid that if they aren't approved for continued federal funding soon, the family will be back to the beginning when her daughter couldn't recognize her.