The Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, Gary Anandasangaree, issued the following statement:
"We must confront the painful truths of our past and the deep injustices inflicted on Indigenous Peoples through colonial actions, particularly within the residential school system. Acknowledging these wrongs and taking concrete actions to address them are essential to our shared path towards reconciliation. The Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund was established in 2022 to empower Indigenous communities and Survivors to lead the efforts in identifying children who did not return home from residential schools and locating burial sites linked to former residential schools.
From the outset of the first findings in Te'Kumlups, we committed to ensuring Canada's unwavering support for Survivors, their families, and communities to commence the journey of healing that starts with engaging with communities, undertaking searches, finding the truth, seeking accountability, and memorialization.
Canada's recent changes to the Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund fell short of our solemn commitment to finding the children.
After engaging with Indigenous leaders and communities, we have heard your concerns loud and clear. Our intention was to fund as many initiatives as possible but we recognize that the lack of flexibility of these changes was a mistake. Communities know best what is needed to undertake this important work, on their own terms. We committed to being there alongside communities every step of the way. That commitment remains and I apologize for any hurt or re-traumatization these changes may have caused. In response to what we heard we are ensuring greater flexibility in the Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund, including lifting the $500,000 limit on funding levels that communities can seek under the program and are removing the recently announced restrictions on funding.
We know that this funding and these supports will never be enough to fully repair the intergenerational trauma but we must continue to recognize the harms we've caused and where we need to be at the table to walk the path of truth, justice, and reconciliation with Indigenous People.
We are listening to and working with Indigenous communities and Survivors to support them in their work to identify children who did not return from residential schools and to locate unmarked burial sites associated with these schools.
We will support as many communities as possible with this funding. For those in the early stages of this work, we will ensure they have support to get started. For communities at more advanced stages, and who are ready to undertake fieldwork, we will work closely with them to ensure we leverage these new flexibilities to allow them to carry out their critical activities. In short, we will do better.
We are committed to working in partnership with communities to ensure this more flexible approach supports communities in carrying out this vital work. Over the coming weeks, we will be engaging with Survivors and communities to discuss a way forward that is Survivor-centric and culturally sensitive.
Through our collaborative work with Indigenous partners, we are making meaningful progress on the path of reconciliation and will continue to support communities in this vital and ongoing work."
