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Results: 1 - 15 of 190
Melanie Kwong
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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.
Emmanuelle Sajous
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Emmanuelle Sajous
2021-06-18 13:11
Good afternoon. I'm tremendously sorry.
My name is Emmanuelle Sajous.
I am the assistant deputy minister at Canadian Heritage, for sport, commemorations and major events. It's nice to be here today. Thank you.
Emmanuelle Sajous
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Emmanuelle Sajous
2021-06-18 13:13
Thank you.
As you heard in the opening remarks, the purpose of Canadian Heritage's commemorations program is to educate Canadians on the history of residential schools and create a positive environment for reconciliation. The program's goals boil down to awareness, education and promotion. We received over 350 funding applications over the course of the program. Canadian Heritage provided $3.5 million in funding for 203 projects, and Kamloops received $40,000 for a project to build a healing garden and a reconciliation centre. The horrifying discovery happened over the course of that project. The funding was earmarked for a healing garden.
I'll now give the floor to my Crown‑Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, or CIRNAC, colleague, who will provide additional information on the number of communities that asked for radars. Ms. McCarthy?
Amanda McCarthy
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Amanda McCarthy
2021-06-18 13:15
Thank you very much for inviting me here.
At this moment, I can say that we've received over 17 requests for more information about the funding envelope. We've provided them with the necessary information for them to access the funding. At this point we've not received more than 10 proposals, as communities work through this very difficult tragedy and listen to their communities and their survivors about the best approach to move forward.
We are here to offer our support and the resources [Technical difficulty—Editor] survivors, their organizations and communities are ready.
Amanda McCarthy
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Amanda McCarthy
2021-06-18 13:17
Thank you for that.
We engaged with over 150 participants during summer and fall 2020, and we overwhelming heard that the approach that Canada should take should be to facilitate access to resources, but the project should be community-led and informed by survivors.
We're currently reaching out with colleagues and other professionals to start the conversation about how to provide a sense of guidance on ground-penetrating radar that communities can access to enable them to make informed decisions.
Amanda McCarthy
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Amanda McCarthy
2021-06-18 13:19
We wanted to make sure we engaged with survivor organizations, indigenous leaders, health practitioners and archaeologists. We did that engagement over the summer and fall of last year. We had delays due to the pandemic. We supported the communities by identifying their priorities, and supported them and their members during that difficult time. We completed the engagement in November 2020, and as you're aware we now have the $27.1 million available.
Emmanuelle Sajous
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Emmanuelle Sajous
2021-06-18 13:22
First of all, budget 2019 did in fact allocate $7 million over two years for Canadian Heritage to address residential schools.
The objective of the money was to increase awareness; to commemorate the legacy; to honour the memory of the residential school survivors, the families and communities; and to provide an opportunity for survivors to talk about this dark period of our history.
In budget 2021, we were able to get $13.4 million over five years. We now have $2.4 million a year to continue on this path and to commemorate the legacy of residential schools.
I will turn to Ms. McCarthy. Maybe you can talk about your own calls to action, and what you're doing on your side.
Amanda McCarthy
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Amanda McCarthy
2021-06-18 13:23
The $27.1 million is the funding that's now available from the $33.8 million specifically targeted for calls to action 74 to 76. The funding is dedicated to supporting indigenous communities and survivors' organizations and their partners in locating, documenting, maintaining and commemorating burial sites associated with former residential schools, and responding to family wishes to commemorate and memorialize their losses and the children's final resting places.
Emmanuelle Sajous
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Emmanuelle Sajous
2021-06-18 13:25
I'm sorry. The connection is not very good on my side. I'm not sure I understood the whole question.
Melanie Kwong
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Melanie Kwong
2021-06-18 13:26
Sure.
In terms of education for the national day, we look forward to the first opportunity this year, now that we have the confirmation of the statutory holiday, to work with organizations nationally but also to engage to see where we can all work together on this important day. Using some of the work we've done to date in terms of commemorating a number of projects, we are continuing to work with contacts across the country. We look forward to continuing to build on the success to date.
With respect to the provinces, as you mentioned, there is a component for education. We will explore all avenues to see how we can best work together on that.
Melanie Kwong
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Melanie Kwong
2021-06-18 13:28
If it's all right, just because of the connection issues, maybe I'll start and then Emmanuelle can add to it, if she wants.
What the $2.4 million offers is the ongoing funding that we're very happy to know will exist in that we will be able to continue [Technical difficulty—Editor] two-year funding that was initially announced. Again, building off of the work that's been done to date, I think there's more work to be done in terms of the national piece. It was mentioned earlier that the funding announced in 2019 allowed us to do a two-year plan, where we did a national focus in the first year and then a number of community-based projects in the second year. Our focus will now be on engaging, as my colleague Amanda McCarthy said, with the organizations and representatives who will be most using the funding, now that we have that permanency, to see how best we can use those funds. That will be the approach.
Thank you.
Amanda McCarthy
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Amanda McCarthy
2021-06-18 13:32
Thank you for the question.
We invited over 200 organizations, and approximately 150 participated in a national virtual engagement last summer and fall, in 2020. We wanted to hear from [Technical difficulty—Editor] on the best way to proceed. With the COVID pandemic, we suffered some delays in giving communities the time and the space to take the preparations they needed within their communities to address the pandemic. Then we received all of our authorities for us to proceed, and now the $27.1 million in funding is available.
We understand that this is an initial investment and that we may need to consider additional resourcing or sourcing in the future. At this point, we're listening to indigenous voices to determine the scope, the interest and how we should proceed.
Emmanuelle Sajous
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Emmanuelle Sajous
2021-06-18 13:35
Canadian Heritage funding went to building a healing garden in the Tk'emlups community. A radar was purchased for that purpose and for searching for other artefacts, and that's when the remains were found.
Canadian Heritage provided direct funding of $40,000 for this project.
Emmanuelle Sajous
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Emmanuelle Sajous
2021-06-18 13:36
I'll start answering the question, and then let my colleague, Ms. Kwong, have the floor.
Call to action 81 calls for a monument in Ottawa to commemorate residential schools, the survivors and the families. An entire team at Canadian Heritage is dedicated to monument planning. I'm not too sure that I understand what the 0.5 number refers to.
Ms. Kwong, would you like to add something?
Melanie Kwong
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Melanie Kwong
2021-06-18 13:36
I wonder whether the response to the question was in fact related to this project.
If I may, I would like to provide a small update on call to action 81, which calls for a monument. Obviously, we would like to continue working on this project. We've already had discussions with key stakeholders to determine their vision for the monument and to be able to proceed to the next steps.
We have a lot—
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