Canada – Budget investments will strengthen Indigenous communities

Our Government recognizes the role it must play in closing long-standing social economic inequities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians and building a better and fairer Canada for today and future generations. Through Budget 2021, the government is proposing a historic, new investment of over $18 billion to improve the quality of life and create new opportunities for Indigenous Peoples.

May 5, 2021 – Ottawa, Ontario – Indigenous Services Canada

Our Government recognizes the role it must play in closing long-standing social economic inequities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians and building a better and fairer Canada for today and future generations. Since 2015, real progress has been made, but more work needs to be done. Through Budget 2021, the government is proposing a historic, new investment of over $18 billion to improve the quality of life and create new opportunities for Indigenous Peoples.

Since the start of the pandemic, Indigenous communities have faced extraordinary health challenges. This budget proposes significant investments to support Indigenous communities in the fight against COVID-19. The budget would support the ongoing public health response to COVID-19 in Indigenous communities, maintain essential health care services for First Nations and Inuit, and make sure students, schools, and post-secondary institutions have the support they need during the pandemic.

To build resilient Indigenous communities and move forward on closing the infrastructure gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, the budget lays out a $6-billion plan to build infrastructure, including the establishment of the $4.3 billion Indigenous Community Infrastructure Fund. This fund would advance key infrastructure priorities such as clean drinking water projects, housing, schools, broadband, and health care facilities.

A robust and resilient economic recovery from the COVID-19 recession must bring all people and communities along. That’s why this budget proposes to: renew the Indigenous Community Business Fund to support jobs in First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Nation communities; establish a First Nations Finance Authority Emergency Fund to provide repayable support for members with financial difficulties due to COVID-19; and support for Indigenous-led businesses and Indigenous entrepreneurs, including those in the tourism industry, so that Indigenous economies are part of the recovery and experience long-term growth.

Investing in children’s education is an important part of the government’s plan to build long-term economic resilience. In 2019, the federal government implemented a co-developed policy and funding approach to better support the needs of First Nations students on reserve. To invest in the future of First Nations children and continue to support the co-developed approach Budget 2021 proposes to invest $1.2 billion over five years, and $181.8 million ongoing. This includes $112 million in 2021-22 to extend COVID-19 support so children on reserve can continue to attend school safely.

Budget 2021 also proposes to provide $150.6 million to support Indigenous students through the Post-Secondary Student Support Program and the Inuit and Métis Nation Post-Secondary Education Strategies. This support would help offset income lost due to COVID-19 that many Indigenous students rely on to pay for tuition, books, housing, and other living expenses.

To support Indigenous post-secondary institutions during COVID-19, Budget 2021 also proposes to provide $26.4 million, in 2021-22, through the Post-Secondary Partnerships Program and the Inuit and Métis Nation Post-Secondary Education Strategies.

For far too long, Indigenous Peoples have faced poor health care and their communities have experienced reduced health outcomes. To ensure Indigenous Peoples can access high-quality health care, Budget 2021 proposes to invest $1.4 billion over five years, beginning in 2021-22, and $40.6 million ongoing, to maintain essential health care services for First Nations and Inuit, continue work to transform First Nations health systems, and respond to the health impacts of climate change.

To ensure Indigenous Peoples have a greater say over the policies and programs that affect their lives, Budget 2021 proposes funding to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, support Indigenous governance and administrative capacity, advance a new fiscal relationship with First Nations, and support self determination.

With this historic investment, the federal government continues to work with Indigenous Peoples to build a nation-to-nation, Inuit-Crown, government-to-government relationship—one based on respect, partnership, and recognition of rights.

“Well before the pandemic, the Government of Canada recognized that a sustained commitment is required to turn the tide on the longstanding inequities faced by Indigenous Peoples. Going forward, Canada will maintain a robust COVID-19 response and create an inclusive recovery plan to ensure that Indigenous communities, businesses, and individuals are not left behind.”

The Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of Indigenous Services

Marie-Emmanuelle Cadieux

Director of Communications

Office of the Minister of Aboriginal Services

613-407-9474

Canada – Budget 2021: Minister Fortier highlights Budget 2021’s investments in Richmond B.C.

Today, Minister of Middle Class Prosperity and Associate Minister of Finance, the Honourable Mona Fortier, continued her cross-country virtual Budget 2021 tour by meeting with members of the Richmond, British Columbia community.

April 23, 2021 – Ottawa, Ontario – Department of Finance Canada

Today, Minister of Middle Class Prosperity and Associate Minister of Finance, the Honourable Mona Fortier, continued her cross-country virtual Budget 2021 tour by meeting with members of the Richmond, British Columbia community.

Her visit included a Richmond Chamber of Commerce speech with Parliamentary Secretary Terry Beech, an address to the ICONNBC Business Association with Minister of National Defence Harjit Sajjan, and she hosted a virtual meeting with seniors along with Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion Carla Qualtrough.

Budget 2021 is an historic investment to address the specific wounds of the COVID-19 recession, put people first, create jobs, grow the middle class, set businesses on a track for long-term growth, and ensure that Canada’s future will be healthier, more equitable, greener, and more prosperous.

The Government of Canada’s top priority remains protecting Canadians’ health and safety, particularly during this third, aggressive wave of the virus and its variants. Vaccine rollout is underway across Canada, with federal government support in every province and territory and Canada is on track to meet the commitment that every Canadian who wants to will be fully vaccinated by September. To date, more than 1,834,430 vaccine doses have been shipped to British Columbia. On March 25, 2021, the federal government tabled legislation in order to provide a one-time payment of up to $1 billion to the provinces and territories, on an equal per capita basis, to help administer vaccines as quickly as possible.

COVID-19 has been devastating for Canada’s seniors. It is essential that we protect the health and well-being of seniors, and the personal support workers who care for them, through this difficult time and into the future. Budget 2021 proposes to provide $3 billion over five years to support provinces and territories in ensuring standards for long-term care are applied and permanent changes are made. And as announced in March 2021, the federal government is proposing to provide provinces and territories with $4 billion through a one-time top-up to the Canada Health Transfer.

The federal government is making these investments to shore up public health systems so that they can continue to provide world-class care to Canadians throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“The best way to keep the economy strong is to keep Canadians healthy, and Budget 2021 is as much about jumpstarting our economy as it is about investing in measures that will increase the quality of life for our citizens – things like health care, child care, arts and culture, the environment and public infrastructure.”

Minister of Middle Class Prosperity and Associate Minister of Finance, the Honourable Mona Fortier

Isabella Brisson

Press Secretary

Office of the Minister of Middle Class Prosperity and Associate Minister of Finance

isabella.brisson@canada.ca

Union Budget 2021-2022: Highlights for the Department of School Education and Literacy

As per the Union Budget 2021-2022 announcement, during the year, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 30 lakh elementary school teachers were trained digitally, covering the whole gamut of education. Taking this further, in 2021-22, training of 56 lakh school teachers will be enabled through NISHTHA.

NISHTHA – National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement is an Integrated Teacher Training Programme aimed at improving learning outcomes at the Elementary level.  It was launched by Department of School Education and Literacy on 21st August, 2019.

During the pandemic, all 18 modules of NISHTHA were made online and translated in 10 regional languages. 27 states and 7 autonomous (CBSE, KVS, NVS, AEES, Sainik Schools, CTSA and CICSE) organisations under MoE and MoD began conducting online NISHTHA courses in 10 languages (Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Odia, Telugu and Urdu) for approximately 24 lakhs elementary school teachers. These modules will be completed by teachers by April 2021.

Specialized online NISHTHA training will be extended to teachers of foundational years from August 2021. Online Training for teachers of Secondary/senior secondary level will be initiated in July 2021. Mentors (Key Resource Persons and State Resource Persons) shall also be prepared alongside for continuing the hand holding of teachers after training is over.

Nirmala ditches the briefcase in announcing the budget

Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s first female Finance Minister, had dumped the colonial heritage of a Budget Briefcase for the typical Bahi-Khata to lug Union Budget Papers. She utilized the exact same earlier and also once more on Monday, February 01, 2021. 

The practice of lugging the Budget brief-case was a British heritage. Words ‘Budget’ stemmed from the French word ‘bougette’, which suggests natural leather brief-case. The “budget plan situation” practice began in the 18th century in Great Britain.  In 1860, the after that British budget plan principal William E Gladstone, lugged his documents in a red luggage with the Queen’s name monogrammed in gold. Since Gladstone’s speeches were amazingly lengthy as well as he required a brief-case to bring his speech documents, Budget brief-case came right into being. In India, various financing priests brought various brief-cases with colours of red, black, tan or brownish. 

Nirmala has utilized a red-cloth folder confined with a string as well as jazzed up with the nationwide symbol to lug the Budget papers. Previously, Finance Ministers in various federal governments including her predecessors in the Modi federal government – Arun Jaitley as well as Piyush Goyal – made use of the typical budget plan brief-case. 

Prior to Nirmala, an enduring colonial custom about the budget plan discussion was changed throughout the Atal Bihari Vajpayee federal government when the after that Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha provided the Budget at 11 am instead of at the standard time of 5 pm. Ever since all federal governments have actually existed the budget plan at 11 am.

 

India in the direction of its target of $5 trillion economic climate: USISPF

According to US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF)’s CEO & President, Mukesh Aghi , the spending plan of India in the direction of its target of a USD 5 trillion economic climate. The Union Budget 2021-22 has actually taken right into factor to consider the demands of all fields of the economic climate, showing a durable development strategy for India to end up being a USD 5 trillion economic climate.
 
The government’s dedication to development is additionally shown in the landmarks and also timelines that it has actually established forth,. USISPF is positive that the international financial investors will certainly welcome the development of India’s economic situation over the following 12-24 months.