Canada has announced principle agreements totalling $43.5 billion ($40 billion CAD) to compensate First Nations children who were taken from their families and put into the welfare system, a major step toward reconciliation with the country's Indigenous people.
The agreements include $21.7 billion ($20 billion CAD) for potentially hundreds of thousands of First Nations children who were removed from their families, who did not get services or who experienced delays in receiving services.
Another $21.7 billion is to reform the system over the next five years.
Canada's Human Rights Tribunal repeatedly found child and family services discriminated against First Nations children, in part by under-funding services on reserves so children were removed from their homes and taken off-reserve to get those services.
"We have a long way to go to address the poverty of our nations and no amount of money will ever be the right amount, nor will it bring back a childhood lost, but today is about acknowledgement, about being seen and heard. Today is about a plan for the future, with First Nations defining and determining a path forward, grounded in our right and the common goal to have our children succeed," said First Nations Regional Chief Cindy Woodhouse.
The government said last month it was setting aside the money for compensation and reform but announced the details on Tuesday.
The agreements come almost 15 years after the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society brought forward a human rights complaint.
Indigenous children are over-represented in foster care across Canada.
The reform deal includes $2,718 ($2,500 CAD) in preventive care per child and provisions for children in foster care to receive support beyond age 18.
Canada admitted its systems were discriminatory but repeatedly fought orders for it to pay compensation and fund reforms, including in a federal court case it lost last year and sought to appeal and an attempt it announced last summer to overturn another tribunal decision ordering funding of capital assets and preventive services.
