Subhead:The number of individuals buried, or cemetery sites associated with Residential Schools, is unknown, reads a cabinet memo.#
A federal fund for exhuming suspected graves at Indian Residential Schools faces oversubscription, with First Nations seeking over $700 million, triple its original budget.
“The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada reported thousands of Indigenous children died while attending Indian Residential Schools,” said a March 14 Ministerial Handout memo by the Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations. “The actual number of individuals buried, or cemetery sites associated with Residential Schools, is unknown.”
Cabinet allocated $238.8 million in 2022 to the Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund to find, document, and commemorate unmarked burial sites. The fund, extended to March 31, 2026, has paid out $246.7 million.
Requests from First Nations now total $704.3 million, according to Blacklock’s.
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In 2021, following the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation’s claim of 215 graves at a Kamloops Residential School site, cabinet announced the fund. Though no remains were found, the First Nation received $12.1 million for exhumations and DNA testing.
Kimberley Murray, Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves, testified last November 28 at Senate committee hearings, acknowledging public skepticism about the existence of graves.
