Natan Obed, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, says 'as of this moment, the Government of Canada has not pledged to renew this funding, and until they do, I do not expect it.'Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press
The head of the national organization representing Inuit says he has had no firm commitment from federal officials to renew funding to support the elimination of tuberculosis in Canada’s North – despite the government promising to eradicate it by 2030.
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami President Natan Obed said in an interview that the issue was discussed at Monday’s Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee meeting, which gathers federal cabinet ministers and Inuit leadership regularly to discuss key priorities.
In 2018, the federal government and ITK pledged to reduce the incidence rates of active tuberculosis in Inuit Nunangat in half by 2025, compared with 2016 rates. It also committed to eliminating the disease by 2030.
Inuit Nunangat is the Inuit homeland and includes Nunavut, Nunavik (northern Quebec), Nunatsiavut (northern Labrador) and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (Yukon and Northwest Territories). Statistics Canada reported there were about 70,000 Inuit living in Canada in 2021, with just over two-thirds of them living in the four regions.
The 2018 pledge was made because while it is virtually unheard of in southern Canada, Inuit Nunangat continues to have disproportionately high rates of the highly treatable and curable disease. That is because of factors such as overcrowded housing, food insecurity and lack of adequate health care access.
The latest Public Health Agency data, from 2023, say the incidence rate for TB among Inuit was 204.2 per 100,000 people, compared with 170.1 in 2016. Mr. Obed said he expects rates to be higher in 2025.
The 2018 budget committed $27.5-million over five years to support the initiative. Then in 2023, another $16.2-million was earmarked for the program over three years. That funding is set to end on March 31, 2026.
ITK had asked for $131.6-million over five years in its prebudget submission, which would support work being done by regional Inuit organizations.
Based on discussions from the meeting, Mr. Obed said his understanding from Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty is that the government is working on a plan for all of the programs with funding set to end at the end of the fiscal year, and that she would have a better sense in the next few months of how this program would be considered.
He added he spent the fall speaking to ministers and senior officials about the issue, but there was no commitment for the renewal of the funding.
“We have heard broad excuses of why there was categorically no way that we would see TB elimination funding in budget 2025, but other than telling us why it wasn’t possible, no one has said that this will happen,” he said. “Broad assurances that it might happen are really of no consequence to us.”
“As of this moment, the Government of Canada has not pledged to renew this funding, and until they do, I do not expect it.”
Ms. Gull-Masty said in a statement that three of the four Inuit regions are on track to meet the 50-per-cent tuberculosis reduction commitment by 2025.
“While this government remains committed to eliminating tuberculosis in Inuit Nunangat by 2030, the tuberculosis outbreaks in Nunavik are causing additional harms to community that make our shared goal harder to achieve,” she said.
Nunavik has 106 cases as of Nov. 25, according to its Regional Board of Health and Social Services. That compares with 94 cases in all of 2024.
Ms. Gull-Masty acknowledged the funding is set to expire, and noted “a decision regarding how tuberculosis prevention and elimination will be funded is forthcoming.” She added the 2025 budget included $2.8-billion in urban, rural and northern Indigenous housing, which supports tuberculosis elimination efforts.
Mr. Obed said that the average tuberculosis rate for Canadians is about five per 100,000 people – but “many of our regions are over 800 per 100,000.” He is calling on federal, provincial and territorial governments to address it.
“If all of that backdrop does not constitute an emergency and a crisis, then we have to ask the question: what would?”