04/04/2025
The federal government’s approach to getting stray dogs under control on reserve could come to Treaty 3 territory, but only if the initiative is led by local communities and First Nation leaders.
Prior to the 2025 federal election being called, Patty Hajdu was Canada’s Minister of Indigenous Services, and in the wake of several recent controversies, the Miner and News reached out to her to see if anything is, or was in the works to help get local “rez dog” populations under control.
Initially our newsroom reached to Kenora’s Member of Parliament, Eric Melillo, to discuss this issue, but despite repeated attempts to get in touch with him prior to the election being called, his office did not respond to our requests to discuss this topic.
Hajdu, meanwhile, has in recent times helped implement a brand new pilot program next door in Treaty 9 and Robinson-Superior Treaty territory (closer to Thunder Bay) where Matawa First Nations (similar to their own version of Grand Council Treaty 3) is actively involved in an animal services pilot meant to help animals and pet owners on reserve.
As it stands, the program has been funded through to the end of October 2026, and to hear those involved tell the details, it’s already making quite the difference for both dogs and humans in Matawa First Nations communities.
According to Hajdu, the pilot could be extended to Treaty 3 and elsewhere across Canada, but only if it’s co-developed at the local level by either an Indigenous organization, collective, or community leader that’s willing to carry the flag like Matawa has.
“Matawa came to me with a vision that if you don’t alleviate the suffering of animals, and if you don’t take care of them by spaying and neutering them, the health risks for people are equally severe,” Hajdu said.
“It’s not just the risks of dog bites or rabies, or other kinds of infectious diseases that can really hurt humans, it also contributes to the extreme mental health suffering of people, in particular children, but also adults as well. They said that to deal with this pain — the ongoing witnessing of deep suffering of animals, many considered family members — they needed a better plan.”
In the year and change since Matawa has been funded to run its animal services pilot, Hajdu says the organization has been able to run spay and neuter clinics, get more animals vaccinated for rabies and other illnesses, and collect data on the amount of dog bites other information that shows the program is working.
“I have the hope in my mind that they’ll be able to demonstrate how they’re able to really efficiently use not a lot of money, but enough to get the job done, and that will open up avenues for future funding decisions and . . . provide templates for other regions of the country who want to do this work, such as Treaty 3,” Hajdu continued.
“Not only are animals suffering, but people are suffering. People cry when you talk about what this means to them, to be able to get their dog vaccinated or spayed, or to get an injury treated, so we can stop this terrible cycle of too many animals being birthed, and animals suffering and being removed from the communities, or in the worst case scenario, exterminated — which is extremely traumatic for the people living there.”
Here in Treaty 3, Hajdu said she is aware that “there is already some discussion amongst several organizations partnering to do a similar initiative” to Matawa’s, and that they “should continue to do their planning” and come up with their own plan to bring to the government if she is re-elected.
While she said she did not want to get into “partisan” issues, Hajdu also suggested that she fears the pilot may have a poorer chance of getting extended to Treaty 3 or elsewhere if the Conservatives form government, based on their party leader Pierre Poilievre’s repeated pledges to slash government funding across the board.
When asked if Melillo had been in touch with her or Indigenous Services Canada about the pilot program or addressing stray dogs in Treaty 3, she said “not at all, he’s never asked me about this,” before adding that she finds his apparent lack of interest “disappointing.”
“I would say that Treaty 3 should continue to do their planning, because Matawa didn’t have any certainty when they put their plan together either,” Hajdu continued.
“They did so with a sense of hopefulness and determination, then met a minister who saw their vision and wanted to make sure they were successful. If I was still the minister, I would definitely try to work to find supports for Treaty 3 – but they have to come up with their own plan first.”
