The Nishnawbe Aski Nation Police Service in Port Severn, Ont. is getting a $500-million infusion from the province and Indigenous leaders would like Ottawa to take note.Indigenous leaders say a new accord with the Ontario government – one intended to see a doubling in officer ranks of the province’s largest First Nations police service – is setting the standard for expanding such forces across the country.
But they are also urging the federal government and other provinces to make commitments, in law and in funding, similar to what Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government unveiled.Ontario’s plan to bolster the ranks of NAPS – already Canada’s largest First Nations force – from 260 officers to more than 500 is a policing deal like a “luxury car, fully equipped,” said Ghislain Picard, a Quebec-based regional chief of theAFN nationally on policing issues. He said there is simply no other deal like this for any First Nations elsewhere in Canada. “This would be the ideal outcome that we would seek in any kind of a discussion or negotiation with the government,” he said. “But we’re nowhere near that.”. Under the agreement signed in December, its representatives opted in to the province’s overhauled policing statute, which was enacted earlier in 2024. The statute states that all parts of Ontario, including First Nations, must meet the same policing standards. The Ontario government, which described the deal as a historic first, is promising a $514-million investment in government funds over three years to NAPS to meet these statutory standards. First Nations’ leaders and the provincial Progressive Conservatives pointed out that the federal Liberal government was not involved in crafting this deal. “Ontario will do what it has to do – when others won’t and when others can’t,” Solicitor-General Michael Kerzner said during the announcement. Alvin Fiddler, the Grand Chief of Nishnawbe Aski Nation, who signed the accord on behalf of the NAPS-patrolled First Nations, said it is crucial that Ottawa follow Ontario’s lea