Federal Government imposes arbitrary cap on funding for residential school searches
Federal government breaks commitment to families and communities by imposing arbitrary cap on funding for residential school searches
The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation is deeply concerned by today’s announcement of a new cap on federal funding for efforts to find the missing children of residential schools.
NCTR Executive Director Stephanie Scott said, “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. Funding must be determined by need, not by 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.”
On June 21, 2021, Parliament passed a unanimous motion to “insist” that the government deploy “the financial resources necessary… for the identification of sites and the establishment of registers, as well as for historical research and the commemoration of the victims.”
Today, the Ministry of Crown-Indigenous Relations informed Indigenous Peoples’ organizations already engaged in searches that future funding would be limited to a maximum of $500,000 a year at each site.
This cap was imposed without consultation. The Survivors’ Secretariat, which is leading search and commemoration activities at the Mohawk Institute in Ontario, has already come forward to say the funding cap would fall far below current costs of their work.
“Communities engaged in the search process, and experts who have looked into the issue, have been saying that the federal funding mechanism is already too restrictive to properly meet real world needs,” Stephanie Scott. “This arbitrary funding cap is a step in exactly the wrong direction for reconciliation. What’s needed is sustained, long-term funding based on flexible criteria developed in collaboration with Indigenous Peoples.”
Federal officials have stated that the new funding cap was necessary because the federal government’s budget for search activities is not sufficient, given the number of applications that have been received from communities. The $500,000 limit breaks down as a maximum of $300,000 for fieldwork and $200,000 for research. Uncertainty remains about funding for other critical aspects of the search process including commemoration, repatriation, and health and well-being.
This information was provided to Indigenous Peoples after details of the funding cap had already appeared in the media. Federal officials have stated that existing funding agreements will not be affected.
The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation remains dedicated to finding missing children through research, educating the public about residential schools, and supporting Survivors. Survivors have called on the Government of Canada to take the necessary steps to ensure that Survivors can heal, that all records related to the residential school system are accessible, and that Canada never forgets the terrible harm that has been done to children, families, and Indigenous Nations. It is essential that we continue to uncover the truth with the goal of fostering reconciliation and healing, and that these emotionally draining efforts are adequately supported.