Updated: Federal Government funding cap for residential school searches

Critical Questions Remain around Federal Commitment to Residential School Search Processes

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) welcomes the federal government’s decision to return to a flexible funding model to support residential school search activities. However, important questions remain unanswered.

Federal officials had previously told Survivors and communities that a funding cap was unavoidable because the money budgeted for search activities could not accommodate growing the number of funding applications being brought forward by affected communities. 

We are seeking concrete assurance that the resources available for residential school searches will be brought into line with the real world needs of our communities.

It is a matter of clear historical record that thousands of children never returned home from residential schools. Their families and communities have the right to know how they died and where they were buried. Finding these answers requires a complex, multi-faceted and long-term search plan. Fulfilling Canada’s obligations requires funding that is flexible, sustained and adequate to ensure that searches can be done in a way that promotes healing, rather than further traumatization.

The NCTR is also deeply concerned that Survivors and communities only learned that the federal government was considering a funding cap after the decision was already made. Crown-Indigenous Relations says that it is committed to trauma-informed approaches to these highly sensitive issues, but it continues to impose arbitrary, unilateral decisions that don’t respect the leadership of Survivors.