From the fiscal crisis of the mid-1990s to the end of Stephen Harper’s Conservative gov- ernment in 2015, federal spending on Indigenous programs grew at a compound annual rate of 2.5% (constant dollars). [...] This study will try to measure the rate of these various increases and assess some of the implications for the well-being of First Nations. [...] It seems a safe guess that the COVID-19 pandemic will cause Indigenous spending to increase in absolute terms but decline relative to total government program spending because of the enor- mous price tag of the various relief measures itemized in the Response Plan and the Fall Update. [...] This increase in funding corresponded more or less to what the previous Conservative government had promised as part of its agreement with Shawn Atleo, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, to improve the educa- tion of First Nations children. [...] The Liberal government restored the planned increase but without the requirements for reorganization of school administration and testing of students that the Conservative agreement had included (Anderson and Richards, 2016a: 21–23).