(Ottawa) The federal government is backtracking on its decision to limit funding for research on former residential school grounds.
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree said the government has heard the concerns of Indigenous leaders and communities “loud and clear.”
Communities could previously receive up to $3 million a year through the Missing Residential School Children Community Support Fund, but the government decided to cap the funding at $500,000.
PHOTO SEAN KILPATRICK, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Gary Anandasangaree, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations
Gary Anandasangaree said in a statement that the government will now lift that cap and remove recently announced restrictions on funding, which is used to locate burial sites at former residential schools and identify children who never returned.
He added that the government’s intention was to fund as many initiatives as possible, but that it made a mistake in not showing enough flexibility.
This fund was established following the 2021 discovery in Te’Kumlups of 215 unmarked graves found on the grounds of a former residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia.