Bill S-2 Indian Act Amendment

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S-2 An Act to Amend the Indian Act (New Registration Entitlements)

Bill Type: Senate Government Bill

Bill Sponsor: Sen. Marc Gold

Status: At consideration in committee in the House of Commons — passed the Senate December 4, 2025. This Bill has not passed yet.

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What is this Bill For?

Bill S-2 fixes a long-standing injustice in the Indian Act — the Law that determines who is legally recognized as a Status Indian in Canada.

For decades, Indigenous women who married non-Indigenous men lost their Indian status. Their children and grandchildren were also cut off from Registration. Courts have repeatedly ruled that these rules violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms — most recently in a case called Nicholas v. Canada. Parliament has amended the Indian Act several times to address these gaps, but each fix has left new ones behind.

Bill S-2 responds directly to the Nicholas court challenge by extending Registration rights to people who were cut off because of those discriminatory rules — including direct descendants of women who lost status through marriage. It also removes outdated and offensive language from the Act, replacing "mentally incompetent Indian" with "dependent person" and updating the rules around how those individuals' estates are managed.

One key change: people who were previously Registered under a two-parent rule (subsection 6(2)) are automatically moved to a one-parent entitlement (paragraph 6(1)(f)) — meaning their children now have a clearer path to Registration regardless of the other parent's status.

Most of the major changes come into force 12 months after Royal Assent — giving the Department of Indigenous Services time to process the expected wave of new Registration applications.

⚠️ Voluntary removal from the Indian Register — The Bill adds a new right: a person can apply in writing to have their name removed from the Indian Register. The Bill states that their entitlement to be Registered continues even after removal. The practical implications — for band membership, treaty rights, program eligibility and future descendants — are not addressed in the Bill.

⚠️ 12-month delay on key provisions — The most significant registration changes do not take effect immediately upon Royal Assent. People entitled to register under the new rules must wait up to a year before they can act on that entitlement.

WHO GAINS POWER

  • Indigenous people who were wrongly denied status — or whose parents or grandparents were denied status under discriminatory marriage rules — gain the right to apply for Registration
  • Direct descendants of women who lost status through marriage gain a clearer, stronger entitlement to Registration under the one-parent rule
  • People on the Indian Register gain the new right to voluntarily remove their own names

WHO LOSES POWER

  • The Registrar loses the ability to deny Registration to people who qualify under the expanded entitlements — the Bill is mandatory, not discretionary
  • The outdated two-parent Registration rule (subsection 6(2)) is repealed — people previously Registered under it are moved to the one-parent rule automatically

WHO GAINS MONEY

  • Newly Registered individuals gain access to Federal programs, services and benefits tied to Indian status — including non-insured health benefits, post-secondary education support and other Indigenous Services programs
  • Bands may see membership grow as newly Registered individuals gain the right to have their names entered in Band Lists

WHO LOSES MONEY

  • The Federal Government bears the cost of processing a significant increase in Registration applications and expanding program eligibility to newly Registered individuals — no cost estimate is provided in the Bill

THE CATCH

⚠️ Voluntary removal from the Indian Register — A person can now ask to have their name removed from the Register. The Bill says their Registration entitlement continues — but it does not address what happens to their Band membership, their treaty rights, their children's future entitlements or their access to Federal programs after removal. The downstream consequences are left undefined.

⚠️ 12-month delay on key provisions — The most significant changes — including the repeal of the two-parent rule and the expanded one-parent entitlement — do not take effect for 12 months after Royal Assent. People who are entitled to Register under the new rules cannot act on that entitlement immediately.

⚠️ No cost estimate — Expanding Registration entitlements will increase the number of Status Indians eligible for Federal programs and services. No fiscal impact assessment is included.