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At least 20 students died at the former Chooutla school in Carcross, Yukon. Photo: The Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre, University of British Columbia
Warning: This article contains details that may be distressing to some readers. The Indian Residential School Survivors Society operates a 24-hour crisis line at 1 (866) 925-4419.
APTN News: The federal government is being slammed for a “devastating” cut to funding for unmarked grave searches near former residential schools.
The unexpected cap on funds was revealed last week.
“It’s been devastating for us,” said Laura Arndt, secretariat lead of the Survivors’ Secretariat, an organization overseeing the survivor-led search for unmarked graves of children who died while attending the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ont., the first residential school in Canada.
“It’s an immediate 86 per cent cut in funding for the work we’re doing in trying to bring the children home.”
Indigenous organizations, some already in the midst of searches, told APTN News the funding will be capped at $500,00 annually for each site.
This was later confirmed to APTN by the department of Crown-Indigenous Relations (CIR).
Not enough
Arndt said it’s not enough money to continue their work.
“The most devastating element of this decision is the immediate cut of funding associated with commemoration and memorialization and mental health supports,” she added.
“Without that funding, the survivors will not be able to come together and have the many conversations that they have been having over the past two-and-a-half years … They’ve (Trudeau government) effectively muted the voices of Indigenous survivors across the country.”
An estimated 150,000 Indigenous children were put through the residential school system between 1831 and 1996. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) said at least 4,100 died and the count could be much higher due to poor record-keeping.
When the Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation said in May 2021 that its preliminary findings uncovered the remains of 215 children at a former residential school site in Kamloops, the Trudeau government responded with $321 million for “Indigenous-led, Survivor-centric and culturally informed initiatives and investments.”
It said $83 million would be available for “community-led processes to search and locate burial sites as well as to commemorate and memorialize the children who died at residential school.”
This money was in addition to the $27.1 million announced in the 2019 budget to implement the Truth and Reconciliation’s (TRC) Calls to Action 72 to 76. The government said the total amount of money toward this initiative is now $116.8 million.
There was also money to develop and maintain the national residential school student death register and set up an online registry of residential school cemeteries, and appoint a special interlocutor to work with nations and advise government on searches.
Revised findings
Meanwhile, the Tk’emlups te Secwépemc Nation has since revised its findings to 200 “anomalies” and suspected burial sites.
The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) in Winnipeg blasted the government for now breaking its “commitment to families and communities.
“Funding for search activities is an essential part of the debt of justice owed to the families and Nations whose children were forcibly taken away,” said NCTR executive director Stephanie Scott in an online statement, noting the funding should be determined by need and not “arbitrary” formulas.
“That’s the only way to meet Parliament’s promise that every Indigenous community would have the means necessary to locate and commemorate the children who never came home.”
A spokesperson for CIR told APTN the government set aside $91 million in its 2024 Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund. It said it had to make “adjustments” to take a “sustainable approach that provides funding to as many community-led initiatives as possible.”
It noted in a statement that the changes will apply to new agreements and not previously signed agreements. The deadline for submitting applications for next year’s funding is Nov. 15, it added.
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