Remaining First Nations Fiscal Amendments Come into Force

Summary#

This is an order (/SI/2024-63/) that sets January 6, 2025 as the day when the remaining parts of An Act to amend the First Nations Fiscal Management Act, to make consequential amendments to other Acts, and to make a clarification relating to another Act come into force. It mainly turns on provisions that need matching changes to related regulations before they can operate.

What it does#

• Fixes January 6, 2025 as the day many remaining sections and subsections of the An Act to amend the First Nations Fiscal Management Act, to make consequential amendments to other Acts, and to make a clarification relating to another Act come into force.
• Brings into force provisions that:
  • integrate the content of the Financing Secured by Other Revenues Regulations into the First Nations Fiscal Management Act; and
  • combine the two separate debt reserve funds (the local-revenue fund and the other-revenue fund) into one, and clarify how it will operate.
• Aligns those legislative changes with amendments to related regulations, including changes to the Debt Reserve Funds Replenishment Regulations, the Revenue Management Implementation Regulations, and the repeal of the Financing Secured by Other Revenues Regulations. All of these regulatory amendments are set to come into force on January 6, 2025 as well.
• Notes that many other amendments from this bill already came into force at royal assent on June 20, 2023.

Who's affected#

• More than 350 First Nations who have opted into the First Nations Fiscal Management Act regime are directly affected.
• The four First Nations-led institutions under the Act:
  • First Nations Financial Management Board (FNFMB),
  • First Nations Tax Commission (FNTC),
  • First Nations Finance Authority (FNFA), and
  • First Nations Infrastructure Institute (FNII).
• Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada and the officials who work on implementing the Act and its regulations.
• Lenders, financial managers and administrators who deal with First Nations borrowing and local revenue instruments.
• If it is unclear who else will be affected in specific cases (for example, individual projects or contracts), that depends on how local First Nations choose to use the law and the updated regulations.

Why it matters#

• It completes the legal side of changes to how First Nations can use local revenues and debt reserve funds for borrowing and infrastructure. That affects decisions about borrowing and how funds are held to protect lenders and communities.
• Aligning the law and the regulations on January 6, 2025 lets the updated system be used in practice by First Nations and the institutions that support them.
• The government says there are no financial implications from simply bringing the remaining provisions into force.