CTV News: The federal government released $27M in unused funding from this budget allocation to assist communities in the search for additional graves.

Bennett said that by the end of the day, First Nations who want to move forward with burial site searches and commemorations will have information about how to access this funding, “which will be distributed on an urgent basis.” According to Bennett’s department the funding will be available “for a range of activities” such as supporting communities who want to conduct research, accessing professional archaeological investigation services “to identify and delineate burial sites,” and returning remains home if desired.

The unspent funding now ready to roll out the door comes from the 2019 federal budget, as part of what was a $33.8-million commitment to be spent over three years to fund the National Residential School Student Death Register and to help “establish and maintain an online registry of known residential school cemeteries.”

Facing questions about why it took years for this money to be made available, the minister said that it took years for the federal government to be “ready” to roll out the funding, spending the other $6.8 million on setting up the death register and online archive of known cemeteries, as well as to engage with Indigenous communities, residential school survivors, and other stakeholders such as archivists.