Indigenous Foster Care in Canada: Bill C-92, Nunavut, and What It Means to Foster Inuit Children

Indigenous children make up less than 8% of the child population in Canada, but they account for roughly 53% of children in foster care. That single statistic tells you more about the history of Canadian child welfare policy than almost anything else you could read.

Understanding why that number exists — and what's being done about it — matters if you're considering fostering in Nunavut, whether you're Inuit or not.

How We Got Here

The overrepresentation of Indigenous children in Canada's child welfare system didn't happen by accident. It's the direct product of policies that, over more than a century, systematically removed Indigenous children from their families and communities. Residential schools were the most visible instrument. The Sixties Scoop — when Indigenous children were removed from their communities and placed with white families, often without their parents' knowledge or consent — is another. The legacy of both continues to shape Inuit families' relationship with government child welfare systems to this day.

In Nunavut, the 2025 Auditor General report found that as recently as the mid-2010s, nearly one-third of Nunavut's children in care were being placed outside the territory — sent to group homes and foster families in Ontario, Manitoba, and Alberta. Many lost their language. Many lost meaningful connection to their families and communities.

This is the context into which Bill C-92 was introduced.

What Bill C-92 Does

The Act Respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis Children, Youth and Families (Bill C-92) came into force in 2020. It establishes national standards for the provision of child and family services to Indigenous people, and it creates a pathway for Indigenous communities and nations to assert jurisdiction over child welfare — to govern their own systems under their own laws.

The core principles of Bill C-92 are:

Cultural continuity as a best interest. The Act makes it explicit that a child's cultural, linguistic, and spiritual connection to their community is a fundamental element of their best interests — not a secondary consideration, but a primary one. This is a significant shift from how "best interests" has historically been interpreted in southern Canadian courts.

Placement priority. Bill C-92 requires that when an Indigenous child must be placed, placement priority must go to: a family member, then another member of the child's community, then another Indigenous family that shares the child's cultural heritage, before considering non-Indigenous placement.

Indigenous-led jurisdiction. First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities or nations that want to govern their own child welfare systems can do so under Bill C-92 by establishing their own laws that meet or exceed the Act's minimum standards.

What It Means for Nunavut Specifically

In Nunavut, where approximately 85% of the population is Inuit, Bill C-92 reinforces what's already the stated priority of the Department of Family Services: keep Inuit children in Inuit families and communities.

Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI), which represents the Inuit of Nunavut under the Nunavut Agreement, has been using Bill C-92 as a framework to advocate for the eventual transfer of child welfare jurisdiction to Inuit-led authorities. This is not a near-term reality — the infrastructure and capacity required is still being developed — but it represents the direction the system is moving.

For foster parents, Bill C-92 most directly affects placement decisions. If you're on the foster care registry and an Inuit child needs placement, the DFS is legally required to exhaust culturally matched options before placing the child with a non-Inuit family.

Fostering as a Non-Indigenous Person in Nunavut

Non-Inuit people do foster Inuit children in Nunavut. According to Nunatsiaq News reporting on national data, roughly half of Inuit foster children in Canada live in non-Inuit homes. The need for local caregivers exceeds the supply of Inuit-licensed foster families, particularly for children with complex medical or behavioral needs.

If you're a non-Inuit person in Nunavut considering fostering, the system will place you in a "cultural bridge" role — providing stable, safe care while the child's cultural needs are actively maintained. This is not a passive role. DFS expects non-Inuit caregivers to:

Maintain language access. This doesn't mean you need to speak Inuktitut. It means you support the child's exposure to their language — through their school, through Elder contact, through Inuktitut media, and by facilitating visits with family members who speak it.

Support contact with biological family. Unless the child's safety requires otherwise, maintaining connection with biological parents, grandparents, and extended kin is expected. In a small community, this is usually unavoidable anyway.

Provide traditional food. Country food — seal, caribou, arctic char — is nutritionally and culturally important. Foster parents are expected to make genuine efforts to source it, which typically means building relationships with local hunters.

Avoid southern defaults. The home study will examine your cultural assumptions. If your instinct is to treat an Inuit child's cultural practices as "extras" rather than essentials, the assessment will reflect that.

The cultural competency component of the Nunavut home study is taken seriously. Workers aren't looking for perfection — they're looking for genuine willingness to learn and a demonstrated commitment to protecting the child's cultural identity.

Why This Matters Beyond Nunavut

Bill C-92 is a national shift with implications that extend well beyond any single territory. It represents a formal acknowledgment, encoded in federal law, that removing Indigenous children from their communities has been a form of harm. The placement priority rules aren't just procedural — they're a legal expression of what best interests means for an Indigenous child.

For anyone thinking about Indigenous foster care anywhere in Canada, understanding this context is not optional. The system you're entering has been shaped by decades of policy that was actively harmful, and its current direction is toward repair and self-determination. Being an effective caregiver in that context means understanding the history, not just the procedures.

The Nunavut Foster Care Guide covers the cultural obligations for non-Inuit caregivers, the placement priority rules under Bill C-92, and how to support an Inuit child's cultural identity from day one — specific to the Nunavut context, not generic Canadian advice.

Get the Nunavut Foster Care Guide

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