In June 2026, Auditor General Karen Hogan confirmed that her office is launching an audit into federal spending regarding missing and murdered indigenous women and girls (MMIWG). The decision comes on the heels of calls from MMIWG family members for accountability for the billions of dollars spent on this crisis.
It has been seven years since the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls released 231 calls for justice. Despite the government’s public claims of meaningful advances, the Nation’s research finds that the number of calls in action declined between 2023 and 2026. This startling revelation reflects the brittle nature of progress, as the Canadian government prioritizes performative gestures over tangible reforms.
In 2023, the CBC released a report card on the government’s progress on implementing the National Inquiry Report’s recommendations.
At the time, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree declared at a news conference that “roughly 160” of the calls had been advanced to action. His claim appeared to contradict the CBC’s report card, which revealed that only 114 calls were actioned, while about 115 were classified as “not started.”
This discrepancy stems from a difference in definitions: the government counts a call as actioned if initiatives are in the planning, analysis, or consultation stages. The CBC, and now the Nation, counts a call as actioned only when concrete changes are made on the ground.
Back in 2023, the CBC’s research found that only 2 of the 231 calls for justice had been implemented. As of today, that number remains the same.
The government’s self-reported data claims that 138 calls for justice were advanced by June 2025, and 163 were advanced by June 2026. But when the Nation applied the stricter standards introduced by the CBC in 2023, we found that a whopping 123 calls were classified as “not started” in 2025. That number fell to 117 by 2026, which marks a marginal short-term improvement. Yet, it remains higher than the 115 recorded in 2023, indicating the government’s work has regressed over the past three years.
Looking more closely at the government’s self-reporting: administrative gestures, such as hosting roundtables and producing vision documents, function as a substitute for action. While the government is willing to track the problem of jurisdictional gaps resulting in the denial of services like mental health and housing, it consistently refrains from doing the hard work of ending the buck-passing.
Advocate and survivor Meggie Cywink says, “The government loves a matrix; they love numbers, they love committees.” She concludes, “There’s no practicality… just another meeting. And the government loves meetings.”
When it comes to service outcomes, the government has genuinely invested in infrastructure, such as building 80 shelters or transitory homes, and expanding high-speed internet access. However, by prioritizing pilot projects and one-off grants above establishing permanent funding frameworks, these infrastructural changes remain time-limited and fragile.
According to the 2026 Fragile Progress report, nearly half of all federal initiatives launched in response to the inquiry have already ended, or are at risk of expiration. Annual funding for these initiatives is projected to drop by 51% by 2028-2029, from $3.7 billion to $1.8 billion. By introducing programs only to let them lapse, the government has been accused of enforcing austerity through expiration.
For institutions requiring profound reform, such as policing and prisons, the government prioritizes ongoing analysis over operational change. For example, despite spending years reviewing security classifications which disproportionately place Indigenous women in maximum security, Correctional Service Canada (CSC) has not changed the classification system. Meanwhile, the government has dedicated years to “co-developing legislation” around policing, rather than actually passing laws.
Calls for Accountability and Justice
Since 2019, the year the National Inquiry was published, the federal government has committed $24.7 billion from 2019 to 2031 on new programs to combat the epidemic of MMIWG. However, advocates like Meggie Cywink point out that families on the ground are still struggling to fund their own searches. This discrepancy explains why over 400 family members signed a letter calling for a forensic audit, questioning why money flows to redundant committees and bureaucracy rather than frontline support.
The urgent demands for a forensic audit of organizations receiving MMIWG funding stem from claims that funds often flow into organizational structures rather than actual services for indigenous women. Senator Michelle Audette suggests this bureaucratic approach is meant to “muzzle a movement.” The senator also highlighted the government’s failure to fulfill the National Inquiry’s calls for an Ombudsperson or an Independent Oversight Body. This lack of external accountability has allowed the government to monitor its own progress.
This has resulted in the government forming task forces to continue studying recommendations that the National Inquiry already detailed years ago. Advocate Simone Page suggested this is a redundant measure, and an example of the government “dragging [its] feet.” With respect to the millions spent on annual reports and websites, she adds, “unless you’re changing people’s material conditions… It’s basically just more bureaucracy.”
In Cywink’s words, “There are families who can’t even afford gas money to keep searching. Meanwhile, millions of dollars are moving through organizations, and families still don’t know where that money’s going.”
Fellow advocate Bridget Tolley echoes the sentiment that families are left to do their own investigations. “The truth is nobody helps our women,” Tolley says. “When we asked [organizations] for a cent or asked them for help, they’re not there.”