An Act to amend the Indian Act (new registration entitlements)

Bill S-2 amends the Indian Act in response to a court case (Nicholas v. Canada) that challenged some of the Act's rules as violating the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The main effect is to expand who qualifies for registration as a status Indian and for inclusion on a band's membership list, particularly by fixing historical unfairness in how entitlement was passed down through parents. It simplifies the rules so that a person qualifies for registration if at least one parent was, or would have been, entitled to registration, removing older provisions that treated men and women, or different generations, differently. It also restores or protects entitlements for people (and their descendants) who lost status or band membership under old, discriminatory provisions, such as those affecting women who married out of their band before 1985.

The bill also updates outdated and stigmatizing language: it removes the term "mentally incompetent Indian" and replaces it with "dependent person," defined as someone found under provincial law to be unable to manage their own affairs due to illness or a condition affecting cognitive capacity. Related provisions about the Minister's authority to manage such a person's property and estate are updated to use this new term.

In addition, the bill sets out a clear process: a person who wants to be removed from the Indian Register can apply in writing, and the Registrar must remove them from both the Register and the band list. It also includes transitional rules confirming that people already registered or entitled to registration under the old rules keep that status under the new rules, and that removing a relative's name from the register doesn't cancel someone else's own entitlement to be registered. Some of these changes take effect immediately on royal assent, while certain provisions are delayed to take effect twelve months later.

This bill amends the Indian Act to expand who qualifies for registration in the Indian Register and Band Lists, replaces the term "mentally incompetent Indian" with "dependent person," and sets out the Minister's powers over the estates of dependent persons.

• Registration eligibility — extends entitlement to registration under paragraph 6(1)(f) to people with at least one parent entitled to registration (living or deceased), removes former paragraphs 6(1)(d) and (e), and recognizes entitlements that previously existed under subsection 6(2), including for descendants affected by pre-1985 rules on women who lost band membership through marriage.
• Right to removal — creates a right for any person to apply in writing to the Registrar to have their own name removed from the Indian Register and Band List, with removal following automatically on request.
• Minister's authority over dependent persons' estates — vests "all jurisdiction and authority" over a dependent person's estate exclusively in the Minister, including power to appoint an administrator, order sale, lease, mortgage or other disposal of property, and make any orders the Minister "considers necessary" for satisfactory management — a standard left to the Minister's discretion rather than defined in the bill.
• Off-reserve property — allows the Minister to order that a dependent person's property located off a reserve be dealt with under the laws of the province where it is situated.
• Retroactive recognition — requires the Registrar to recognize, going forward, any registration entitlement that existed under the old subsection 6(2) before this Act's changes take effect, and deems certain previously registered individuals to be registered under the new paragraph 6(1)(f).
• Delayed and layered coming into force — several subsections take effect only 12 months after royal assent, while others take effect immediately, creating a period in which some provisions of the amended Act apply and others do not.