News Release
November 6, 2026

Federal Budget 2026 Deals Devastating Blow to Specific Claims Research Funding While Government Fast-Tracks Major Projects

(xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil Waututh)/ Vancouver, B.C. – November 6, 2026) Yesterday, Minister of Finance and National Revenue François-Philippe Champagne tabled the federal budget, delivering a devastating blow to specific claims research and development funding, slashing the annual budget to $4 million for Claims Research Units (CRUs) and First Nations across the country – a 67 percent cut. The cut will decimate the capacity of CRUs and make it impossible for First Nations to advance specific claims against the federal government, in clear violation of their right to redress under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the federal UN Declaration Act. 

The budget cuts, executed under the banner of asserting Canadian identity and sovereignty, coincide with the Carney government pushing through legislation to fast-track major projects deemed in the national interest without ensuring adequate protections for First Nations’ inherent and constitutional rights and title, and jurisdiction. The territories earmarked for major projects – 40 percent are in B.C. – overlap with lands where hundreds of historical grievances remain unresolved. Over half of these unresolved claims are in B.C., many of them related to infrastructure projects that were carried out unlawfully. 

Budget 2026 will exacerbate an already acute research funding crisis that has stranded hundreds of specific claims without access to justice. First Nations have been adamant in hundreds of letters to the Prime Minister since he took office that the resolution of specific claims must be a government priority. The $4 million allocated in Budget 2026 will leave up to 80 percent of claims without funding and leave First Nations with little recourse but litigation or direct action. 

Lemxyaltexw Chief Dalton Silver, Co-Chair of the B.C. Specific Claims Working Group, stated “The Truth and Reconciliation Commission made it clear over a decade ago that reconciliation requires political will, joint leadership, building trust, accountability, transparency, and investing in resources. The federal government must uphold its legal obligations to First Nations to resolve outstanding claims if it hopes to build lasting partnerships and proceed with development. This starts by ensuring that First Nations have stable and adequate research funding so that past wrongs are fairly and properly addressed. This would constitute true nation building and would be a meaningful step in furthering First Nations-Crown reconciliation.”

tsiqw xwéxwne Judy Wilson, B.C. Specific Claims Working Group Co-Chair, remarked “The Carney Government’s transactional approach to relationship-building and its emphasis on economic reconciliation at the expense of justice does not change the fact that providing redress for Canada’s illegal acts of land dispossession is essential to developing constructive relationships between First Nations and the Crown. Economic reconciliation doesn’t mean disavowing the legitimacy of First Nations’ grievances by starving them of the resources necessary to resolve them. As Canada seeks to build new economic partnerships internationally, it would do well to demonstrate its trustworthiness and stability by honouring its obligations and commitments to First Nations. Nobody wants another Oka crisis, but the government is leaving First Nations with fewer and fewer options.”

“Historical research is the entry point to the specific claims resolution process by Canada’s own design,” added Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs President, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip. “The Carney Government has just severed First Nations from the ability to participate in Canada’s own process for providing restitution for illegal Crown conduct. This is a dishonourable, ignorant, and high-risk calculation that will not make claims disappear but will increase Canada’s liabilities and substantially harm Canada’s relationship with First Nations. First Nations will continue to challenge this deeply flawed logic about how to Build Canada Strong.”    

-30-

UBCIC is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

For more information, please visit www.ubcic.bc.ca 

Download PDF