Indigenous Services Canada’s headquarters takes on average more than a year to process applications for Indian status, according to a new report by Canada’s auditor general.
The audit found that over a period from 2019-2024, although there is a service standard to make a decision within six months, over 80 per cent of applications processed by Indigenous Services Canada headquarters exceeded this.
The average processing time was just under 16 months.
The report notes the long wait times are a barrier to accessing vital services such as on-reserve housing, health benefits and financial aid for post-secondary schooling.
The report says Indigenous Services Canada headquarters and its regional offices made decisions on about 140,000 registration applications from April 2019 to March 2024. Just over 58,000 of these were related to Bill S-3 amendments to the Indian Act.
There was a backlog of almost 12,000 applications, with nearly 1,500 of those delayed more than two years.
The report recommends that ISC examine its application processing to find ways to reduce wait times, and establish a plan to reduce the backlog.
In a statement, Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty said she agrees with the report’s recommendations and sees the audit as a tool to enhance fairness and efficiency of the registration process.
She said work is being done to move from paper applications toward a digital format in an effort to reduce processing times and minimize errors.
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