OTTAWA — When Mandy Gall-Masty took office as Indigenous Affairs minister last spring, there was one question facing her appointment: Why would a Cree woman want to administer the Indian Act when another Indigenous woman had turned down the role before her?
Gall-Masty was appointed to the cabinet position in May after being elected to parliament for the first time in April. She told The Canadian Press she was willing to “take the risk” despite some saying the government was “setting (her) up to fail.”
Others, she said, pointed to a path she could help create for the people she once worked with and make progress on issues she knows well: clean drinking water, housing and child protection.
“I had the opportunity to learn more – a lot more – than I ever expected. I also had to fight back in my own way,” Gall-Masty said from her office in downtown Ottawa.
“I can say that from the day I started until today, the outpouring of support and people wanting me to succeed and wanting to work with me has increased exponentially and I am so grateful for that.”
Gull-Masti was at least the second Indigenous woman to be offered the job by a Liberal prime minister, but the first to accept it.
Former minister Jody Wilson-Raybould turned down the job when offered it by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau because she would have had to administer programs under the Indian Act, legislation she opposed throughout her career.
Indigenous leaders at the time said Trudeau's offer to transfer her to Indigenous Services was inappropriate given the federal government's excessive control over Indigenous peoples and communities.
Gall-Masti, who was offered the same role by Prime Minister Mark Carney, thought about it differently in the roughly 200 days she held the position.
She said being in-country has given her a new perspective and responsibility to the communities she works with on a daily basis. It has also shaped her relationships with colleagues around the cabinet table who may not have the same working knowledge of Indigenous communities in this country.
Sometimes this means editing their speeches and providing feedback to ensure their words reflect the reality of the community. In other cases, people find it “difficult” to think about Indigenous communities in their work, even if their work does not directly involve Indigenous people.
That's true in her relationship with Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson, who she said has met with the government's Indigenous Caucus, which includes Gall-Masti, Liberal MP Jaime Battiste and Northern and Arctic Affairs Minister Rebecca Chartrand.
Hodgson, another newcomer to Parliament and former chairman of Hydro One, finds himself in a position where he has to ask Indigenous communities to build with the federal government and support its major projects program. Things did not go entirely smoothly for the new minister.
In November, Hodgson said he might meet with coastal First Nations opposed to a proposed pipeline to the British Columbia coast via Zoom.
The comments, which were widely perceived as dismissive of Indigenous participation and the value of personal relationships and meetings, were met with a swift apology from Hodgson, who vowed to meet them in person as soon as he could.
“He owned it,” Gall-Masty said.
“I’m always going to offer people grace as they try to get into that space and participate.”
She also had to be gracious and remind herself that while Indigenous issues may not be at the forefront of the average Canadian's mind, everything she does makes headlines in the communities she serves.
“I had my moments,” she said.
“I don’t judge…who is important and who is not important—I know what role we fill, and the reason we were chosen for that role is extremely important.”
A newcomer to federal politics, Gull-Masty has lived her life in the public eye, most recently as grand chief of the Grand Council of the Crees, where she built equal relationships with Indigenous leaders from across the country.
In her new role, that dynamic has changed, most noticeably during December's Assembly of First Nations in Ottawa. It was there that Gall-Masti delivered government messages to a group of leaders she once sat next to.
Working 14-hour days during the three-day meeting, Gall-Masti felt that performing her new role in a familiar space brought a new “tension.”
“It was very different to have the reality of what people face in this country as Indigenous people acknowledged,” she said.
“And to see my colleagues being in that space and trying to help them and guide them through it, I’ve never experienced anything like that.”
Gall-Masty said she has always been a liberal but has not always publicly supported the party.
Posting on social media ahead of the 2015 election, Gull-Masti endorsed then-NDP leader Tom Mulcair, a progressive leader who promised pharmaceutical relief, reconciliation with Indigenous peoples and support for the North.
She chuckled when asked what had changed in the past 10 years, when she was ready to put her name on the ballot for the Abitibi Bay-James-Nunavik-Iyu route for a party she once said was given too many “chances.”
“In that era, 10 years ago, when I was younger, it was the right person at that moment… In leadership, I look for someone who will really have structure, who will have stability, who will ensure there is clarity in the path that they are trying to take,” she said.
“I think I've found that now, working with this prime minister. Tom Mulcair doesn't dig it, but I think Carney is offering it to me in a sense (and) I'm very proud to be part of it.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 27, 2025.
