Feds promise more funding for residential school searches, will tap special interlocutor – CTV News
August 10, 2021
OTTAWA — The federal government announced Tuesday that it intends to spend an additional $321 million on a range of initiatives related to residential school searches and to support Indigenous communities doing the work. The Liberals also said they plan to name a special interlocutor to suggest new legal measures, and will create a national commemorative monument.
“We recognize that there are a number of immediate and urgent growing needs for supports especially as more confirmations of unmarked burials at former residential institutions are made across the country,” said Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller during the announcement.
The series of new spending commitments come nearly three months after the unmarked graves of an estimated 215 children were identified in Kamloops, B.C. in May, and ahead of a possible federal election call that would halt major government decision-making, leaving the Liberals to defend their record to-date on the campaign trail, in the face of opposition calls for stronger actions.
