Report

Overview of First Nations and Inuit police funding and spending

Nov 25, 2025

In response to a request by the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs, this report presents an overview of First Nations and Inuit police funding and spending.

Highlights

Over 2015-16 to 2024-25, planned federal funding for First Nations and Inuit policing through the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program (FNIPP) and the First Nations and Inuit Policing Facilities Program (FNIPFP) increased from $123 million to $395 million, representing an average annual growth rate of 12.3 per cent.
Since 2021-22, program funds have not been fully spent as provincial-territorial partners faced challenges in providing their required cost-share funding to implement expanded federal funding commitments announced in Budget 2021, in part because of a misalignment of funding cycles.
Most stakeholders believe self-administered First Nations and Inuit police services are underfunded, and there is a need for federal legislation that recognizes First Nations policing as an essential service. While the federal government previously committed to table such legislation, the Minister of Public Safety wants to secure funding prior to its introduction. The cost of funding resulting from such federal legislation is currently not known.
Following the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service opting into the *Community Safety and Policing Act* of Ontario, the estimated resources required to provide the reevaluated service levels have doubled (from about 260 officers to a plan of 500 officers). To cover 52 per cent of the cost of this planned increase would require more funding than what is currently available in the FNIPP envelope. If all First Nations and Inuit police services were to be considered essential services, even if they would not all need a doubling of resources, the FNIPP would still require significant additional funding.