A Wolastoqey family in New Brunswick is in limbo regarding medical care for their three-year-old son, amid an ongoing backlog of Jordan’s Principle funding applications.
“Kids shouldn’t have to go without care just because the governments can’t figure out who’s going to pay for what,” said Stephanie Francis.
Stephanie and Ashton Francis from Tobique First Nation (Neqotkuk), about 200 kilometres northwest of Saint John, are the parents of three-year-old Beckett who has glycogen storage disorder type 1A. His condition prevents his liver from breaking down stored glycogen, leaving him vulnerable to dangerous drops in blood sugar.
He requires overnight feeding through a gastrostomy tube every two to three hours to avoid hypoglycemia, which can lead to seizures, coma, permanent damage or even death.
Doctors at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax supported the Francis family’s request for a night nurse, but their applications to Indigenous Services Canada’s Jordan’s Principle program were repeatedly rejected or delayed.
Jordan’s Principle exists to ensure First Nations youth can access essential health and social services without delay or disruption, with jurisdictional questions over which government should pay to be worked out later.
“For families with a child who has a gastrostomy tube and GSD 1A, overnight nursing care is often medically necessary rather than just helpful,” said Lucy You, vice-president of strategy, health and technology for Liver Canada, in an email to CBC Indigenous.
“Managing the feeding schedule, monitoring for complications, and recognizing signs of hypoglycemia often exceeds what families can safely manage on their own.”
Last year, the Jordan’s Principle program approved a night nurse for Beckett five nights a week. But every few months, the family had to reapply, submitting new paperwork and facing new delays.
“Each time it was getting harder and harder and harder to get funding for it, even though we were providing more and more and more documentation as to why this service is needed and that it’s actually a life-saving service for our son,” said Stephanie Francis.
“We didn’t know if in six weeks we were going to have to reapply again or if they weren’t going to approve it.”
Carllia Panton has worked overnight with the Francis family as a night nurse, monitoring Beckett’s sugars and giving him feedings through his tube approximately every two hours.
“Over the year that I’ve been there, he hasn’t been hospitalized once and his sugars are 98 per cent within range and his parents, they’re not sleep-deprived anymore,” she said.
The funding insecurity puts her in a moral dilemma. Panton remembers one occasion when her employer told her not to go to the Francis home because Jordan’s Principle hadn’t sent payments so she wouldn’t be paid for those shifts.
“I still went anyway,” said Panton.
“I ended up getting paid at the end of the day but I wouldn’t leave them just because there’s no money for me to be paid.”
The family’s request for overnight nursing on weekends has been denied twice. Their appeal is now stuck in Jordan’s Principle’s growing backlog.
In December of last year, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ordered the federal government to immediately address its backlog of 140,000 applications.
In a statement to CBC Indigenous, Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) said “we are aware of the delays and are working diligently to reduce the backlog while ensuring new requests are also being reviewed.”
The statement said as of June 4, 2025, the program still has nearly 140,000 backlogged requests.
“While requests are being addressed new requests continue to be added as well, including nearly 100,000 additional requests between December 2024 and June 4, 2025,” the statement said.
“The backlog and the strain it is causing on individuals, families, and communities is unacceptable. Minister [Mandy] Gull-Masty is pushing towards new solutions to reduce and eliminate the backlog. Indigenous Services Canada is also working with First Nation leadership in partnership on how the delivery of Jordan’s Principle can be improved.”
In late July, the Francis family, supported by the Wolastoqey chiefs, met with representatives from the New Brunswick government, Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty and representatives from the Assembly of First Nations. Francis said she shared her family’s story in hopes of changing the wait times.
Sitansisk (St. Mary’s First Nation) Chief Allan Polchies said his community, like many others, has been forced to cover urgent costs for community members waiting on a response from Jordan’s Principle.
“We are absorbing the cost at the moment only because we don’t want any of the children to go without,” said Polchies.
“This is another example of the federal government not honouring their commitment to the First Nations children in this country.”
Stephanie Francis said she hopes families with similar medical needs won’t have to face the same struggles accessing funding through Jordan’s Principle in the future.
“Jordan’s Principle was made so that no kid would go without any services that they need and that the money portion of it would be figured out later,” she said.
“They need to get back to that.”
