OTTAWA — For the first time ever, an Indigenous person has been chosen to lead the federal department responsible for providing services to First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities.
Mandy Gull-Masty, former grand chief of the Grand Council of the Crees, was sworn in Tuesday morning as the Indigenous services minister.
Gull-Masty replaces longtime minister Patty Hajdu, who will now serve as the minister of jobs and families and the minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario.
Gull-Masty, a first-time MP, won her riding of Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou by beating Bloc Québécois MP Sylvie Bérubé, who had held it since 2019.
Sitting with her at the cabinet table will be rookie Anishinaabe MP and minister Rebecca Chartrand, who takes on the northern affairs portfolio, and Métis secretary of state for rural development Buckley Belanger.
The minister in control of Indigenous services often comes into conflict with community leaders unhappy with the level of funding provided by the federal government. So does the minister of Crown-Indigenous relations — who is now former Yellowknife mayor Rebecca Alty, who takes over from Gary Anandasangaree.
Gull-Masty found herself on the opposite side of the table in her former role as grand chief. She lobbied the government for Indigenous community funding and negotiated $200 million through the Indigenous Community Infrastructure Fund to build housing.
Gull-Masty inherits a series of uncompleted tasks in her new portfolio, including reforming the child welfare system and ensuring communities have access to clean drinking water.
At a news conference on Monday, First Nations leaders pointed to those tasks as they outlined the priorities they have for the first 100 days of Prime Minister Mark Carney's government.
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said parliamentarians would be "playing games with First Nations children's lives" if they failed to reintroduce legislation to ensure access to clean drinking water. She also pointed to a growing infrastructure gap in Indigenous communities the AFN says will cost roughly $350 billion to eliminate.
Then-prime minister Justin Trudeau pledged to bring First Nations infrastructure in line with the rest of the country by 2030, but current levels of investment are sure to push that deadline further into the future.
While Gull-Masty is the first First Nations person to lead the department, she is at least the second to be asked to take on the job since its creation in 2017.
Former minister Jody Wilson-Raybould was offered the Indigenous services ministry by Trudeau but turned it down over because she would have had to administer programs under the Indian Act — legislation she has opposed throughout her career.
Indigenous leaders at the time said Trudeau's proposal to move her to Indigenous services was inappropriate, given the outsized control the federal government has over Indigenous Peoples and communities.
Wilson-Raybould's father Bill told CBC News in 2019 it would have made her the "distributor of welfare," and that it would be a tokenistic role.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 13, 2025.
Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press
