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Status and purpose

• Bill S-2 was passed by the Senate on December 4, 2025, and is at second reading. It is not yet law.
• It amends the Indian Act to create new entitlements to registration in the Indian Register, responding to a Charter challenge in Nicholas v. Canada (Attorney General).

Indian Act amendments

• Registration: A person would be entitled to register if at least one parent is or was entitled to register. The bill also extends entitlement to direct descendants of certain people who were, or would have been, entitled to register, including people omitted or deleted under specified former provisions.
• Existing categories: The bill repeals registration under subsection 6(2) and moves qualifying registered people into paragraph 6(1)(f), subject to certain Registrar deletions. It also requires the Registrar to recognize qualifying 6(2) entitlements that existed before the repeal.
• Band Lists: The bill changes entitlement rules for Band Lists maintained by the Department of Indigenous Services. It adds rules for people who ceased to be band members under a former provision concerning married women, and for their direct descendants who are entitled to register. These changes do not describe rules for Band Lists maintained elsewhere.
• Removal: A person could apply in writing to the Registrar to have their name removed from the Indian Register. The Registrar would also remove it from a Band List maintained in the Department. Removal would not end the registration entitlement of that person or their descendants.
• Dependent persons: The bill replaces the definition of “mentally incompetent Indian” with “dependent person,” referring to an Indian found under provincial law to be unable to manage their estate because of an illness or impairment affecting cognitive capacity. It sets out the Minister’s exclusive authority over such estates, including powers to appoint an administrator and order property to be dealt with. The Minister could order off-reserve property to be dealt with under the law of the province where it is located.

Coming into force

• Specified registration and Band List amendments would take effect 12 months after royal assent.
• The supplied text does not give a cost estimate.