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Results: 1 - 15 of 125
Melanie Kwong
View Melanie Kwong Profile
Melanie Kwong
2021-06-18 13:06
Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members.
I would just like to mention that my colleague Emmanuelle is having some connection difficulties, so I'll be speaking on her behalf to begin the remarks.
Dear members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. I'm pleased to be appearing before you today.
Recognizing that I'm speaking on my colleague's behalf, I would like to acknowledge that today I'm speaking to you from the Treaty No. 7 territory of the Stoney Nakoda and Blackfoot Confederacy, as well as Métis region 3 in Alberta.
I'm here to give you information on funding provided by the Department of Canadian Heritage for activities related to the commemoration of the history and legacy of residential schools.
First, I would like to acknowledge the committee's support in making the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation a reality. This year, on September 30, we will mark the first anniversary of this important day that will help ensure that the tragic history and legacy of residential schools are not forgotten and remain a vital component of the reconciliation process.
In 2019, the federal budget provided $7 million over two years for projects to raise awareness of the history and legacy of residential schools and to honour survivors, families and communities. The department developed a two-year strategy. The first year we funded large-scale national initiatives that have an educational and legacy component. The second year was for community-based projects suited to meet specific needs, histories and realities.
This funding provided grants and contributions to eligible recipients for initiatives that helped raise awareness regarding the history and legacy of residential schools and for activities that enabled communities to recognize, commemorate and honour survivors, their families and communities. Interest in this special initiative was remarkable with over 350 applications totalling $14 million in requested funding, despite the challenges caused by the pandemic.
Between 2019 and 2021, several national events and 203 community projects were funded. Examples of eligible projects include: healing gardens, ceremonies, healing workshops, elder presentations, speaker series, commemorative plaques and monuments, educational and awareness material, and cultural and artistic initiatives.
These numbers show the interest and need for these types of commemorative activities and funding to support them.
I'm happy to report that budget 2021 made the funding announced in budget 2019 permanent, with $13.4 million over the next five years and $2.4 million in ongoing support. The department will be engaging indigenous groups, survivor organizations and communities to determine how best to allocate funds. It is critical to engage to ensure this funding best meets the needs of indigenous communities and that we adhere to the principle of “nothing about us without us”.
In parallel with this national engagement, the department will collaborate with national organizations for large‑scale commemorative events in 2021 that will continue to raise awareness regarding the history and legacy that I talked about earlier.
To speak specifically on the paths to healing project, I have some points of clarification.
The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc received a $40,000 grant for a project they called “paths to healing”. This was in the context of the funding I mentioned previously that was announced in 2019.
The objective of the program was to commemorate the history and legacy of residential schools and to honour survivors, their families and communities. The project submitted by the community was in fact for the creation of a permanent memorial site and included improvements such as benches, plants, gardens and paths within the existing heritage park. It also included commemorative events centred around Orange Shirt Day.
The use of the ground-penetrating radar technology was one of the measures taken as part of the development of this initiative. In effect, one can say that the Canadian Heritage funding contributed to the identification of the remains. However, this find was not the original intended specific purpose of the project.
Other federal departments, such as Crown‑Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, have their own initiatives that address certain calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. These initiatives relate to their specific mandates.
In the specific case of missing children and burials, the Department of Crown‑Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada is the lead for calls to action 74 to 76.
This concludes my opening remarks.
Thank you.
View Carolyn Bennett Profile
Lib. (ON)
Kwe kwe, Unnusakkut, Tansi, hello.
I am speaking to you today from the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. I also wish to honour the waters they paddled and their moccasins which walked these lands.
I am joining you along with my colleague, the Minister of Northern Affairs, and we are supported by our deputy minister, Daniel Watson, and his team.
While I am appearing today on my department’s 2021-2022 supplementary estimates (A), it is also at a difficult time for indigenous communities, and all Canadians.
We are all deeply heartbroken at the discovery of the unmarked remains of children at the former Kamloops residential school. This has shocked and disturbed the nation. For indigenous people across the country, these findings are deeply painful and traumatizing, but for them not as surprising, as this was forecast. These have been the stories and the “knowings” for a very long time. For six years the Truth and Reconciliation Commission heard these hard truths, along with many others, during their national and regional reconciliation gatherings. These revelations have reopened many wounds and renewed a necessary conversation on the role of residential schools, those responsible, and how as a country we can move forward together.
We are working with the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation and our partners, such as the B.C. First Nations Health Authority, to provide the resources and the supports needed, as determined by the community. I have spoken with Kúkpi7 Casimir, most recently on Monday night, and her leadership and strength have been exemplary. We have offered support for healing, mental health supports, security and whatever she needs to support her community now, as well as support for research, archaeological expertise and commemoration going forward.
In memory of all of the children who went missing, and in support of their grieving families and communities, we provided $33.8 million through budget 2019 to implement TRC calls to action 72 to 76.
To support implementing calls to action 72 and 73, we have funded the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to develop and maintain the national residential school student death register and establish an online registry of residential school cemeteries.
In keeping with the principles laid out in call to action 76, after the passage of budget 2019 we engaged with communities to ensure that any program to deliver the funds to support calls to action 74 and 75 was designed in a way to meet their needs, be flexible enough to support community-led approaches and respect community protocols.
Based on what we heard, we are currently providing funding, on an urgent basis, to support indigenous-led, community-based, survivor-centric and culturally sensitive investigations of these burial sites. We are actively reaching out to indigenous communities to work with them on how they can access the $27 million of funding being delivered to support them in finding their lost children. Communities know what they need. Our government will be there to support their way forward.
In discussing the supplementary estimates (A), we know that the money is there to heal past wrongs, support self-determination and advance reconciliation with first nations, Inuit and Métis people. They reflect a net increase of $997 million, which includes the $136.4 million in new funding and $868.2 million in re-profiled funding. The re-profiled funding in these estimates will preserve funding for the ongoing implementation of the Federal Indian Day Schools Settlement Agreement and the sixties scoop settlement. As of May 31, 2021, of more than 113,000 claims received under the Federal Indian Day Schools Settlement Agreement, over 75,000 survivors have received payment of individual compensation. While COVID-19 has delayed the implementation of the Sixties Scoop Settlement Agreement, approximately 15,000 interim payments of $21,000 have been paid. These supplementary estimates will preserve the funding to complete the individual compensation, which should be determined later in the fiscal year.
These supplementary estimates also include funding to support Inuit housing, Tŝilhqot’in community priorities through their pathway agreement, implementation of the Nunavik Inuit Land Claims Agreement and many other important measures to support reconciliation.
We have provided you with a comprehensive deck on the supplementary estimates (A). I look forward to providing further details through your questions.
Meegwetch. Nakurmiik. Marsi. Thank you.
View Marcus Powlowski Profile
Lib. (ON)
Just to clarify that: You say that on the previous litigation there was a requirement to disclose documents, and those documents can still be accessed now through that previous litigation? I'm just not sure what the response meant.
Martin Reiher
View Martin Reiher Profile
Martin Reiher
2021-06-10 11:31
Thank you.
The documents that were disclosed as part of the litigation were gathered, and under the settlement agreement, a lot of research was done both by the federal government and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Over five million documents were gathered and transferred to the NCTR. There is already a lot of historical information that is available. This is the document collection that I was referring to. There are other documents that exist that were not disclosed. Maybe the legal power that we would have would be to go through the court, through the processes under the settlement agreement, to compel additional disclosure.
View Marcus Powlowski Profile
Lib. (ON)
Minister, we have set aside $27 million for further investigations to see if there are—and, certainly, there will be—other graveyards or bodies found. Can you tell us...? It hasn't been that long since the bodies were discovered in Kamloops, but so far, have other indigenous groups come forward to ask for funding to look for further sites?
View Carolyn Bennett Profile
Lib. (ON)
Yes, unfortunately, Marcus, in Kamloops there had been that “knowing” for over 20 years, and they had begun that work. I think that we are already seeing requests coming from Saskatchewan and from Six Nations, and that this is, unfortunately, very prevalent. As we go across the country and see even the marked graves with the small crosses there in the cemeteries adjacent to where the schools were, it is heartbreaking, but as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission said, there are just thousands, probably, of unmarked graves and remains that have yet to be discovered.
View Sylvie Bérubé Profile
BQ (QC)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I am speaking from my office in Val-d'Or, which is on the traditional territory of the Algonquin, Cree and Anishinaabe peoples.
I thank the minister and all the witnesses for being here today.
My question is for Mr. Miller.
In the 2019 budget, the government had announced a figure of $33.8 million over three years to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's calls to action 72 to 78. The Prime Minister and yourself have reiterated that the government has invested that money.
Do you agree with me that a budget statement is worthless if Parliament does not authorize the proposed spending, yes or no?
View Marc Miller Profile
Lib. (QC)
I agree with you on one thing: I am making no excuses for the late deployment of those funds. As you know, supporting communities in their grief and when searches are necessary is a hugely delicate process. It is very intrusive and traumatizing, and it is understandable that it can take time to get answers.
The indigenous peoples want answers, and the message I have for them today is this: in addition to the $27 million that was approved by Treasury Board, Canada will be here for all communities that want to conduct searches. They are the ones who will set the tone. We cannot do it without their completely informed consent, given the sensitive nature of the process.
Protocols have to be established and I don't think the communities have pre-established protocols for this kind of atrocity, and that is why we have to give them space and time. However, that must not be interpreted as an excuse for not spending this money. If the communities need additional support or the expertise of the Government of Canada, we will be here for them.
View Sylvie Bérubé Profile
BQ (QC)
When we examine the public accounts of Canada for 2019 to 2020 and the main estimates for the three years after the 2019 budget, we see that this money was not included in the budget, except for the $3.2 million that appeared in the 2020-2021 supplementary estimates (B).
Can you explain what became of the rest of the $33.8 million?
View Marc Miller Profile
Lib. (QC)
That falls under Ms. Bennett's mandate, in particular.
I may be corrected on the precise amounts, but it is money that was paid to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. I may be wrong and that may have to be corrected afterward. Mr. Thompson may want to correct me.
Philippe Thompson
View Philippe Thompson Profile
Philippe Thompson
2021-06-10 12:50
That is also what I understand, that these funds are not part of the department's reference level. Unfortunately, I can't offer you any more information about that money.
View Arnold Viersen Profile
CPC (AB)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Minister Miller, I have just been looking over the TRC report once again, and it strikes me, driving around my own riding, that the amount of money spent on residential schools was not the problem. Some of these structures are the most imposing on our landscape in northern Canada. It's not a matter of the money; it's a matter of the outcome.
Your government continually touts the amount of money that it spends and yet what we see is very much a lack of outcomes. Are you still committed to implementing the TRC report recommendations?
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