Miller 'dumbfounded' appeal dropped over Catholic Church's residential school payments

Newly named Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller says he wants to get to the bottom of why Ottawa abandoned its appeal of a ruling releasing the Catholic Church from its settlement obligations to residential school survivors.

"I am as puzzled as everyone," Miller, who previously served as Indigenous services minister, told The Canadian Press in a recent, wide-ranging interview.

"I don't know what there is to do yet."

The ruling, handed down by a Saskatchewan judge in July 2015, found a deal had been struck between the federal government and a corporation of Catholic entities. That deal released the church groups from their remaining obligations within the $79 million worth of payments and in-kind services owed to survivors under the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement, approved in 2006.

That included, for example, a "best efforts" fundraising campaign to generate $25 million, but the court was told that only about $3 million was raised by the groups since the agreement took effect in 2007.

The efforts made by Catholic bodies to relieve the church of responsibilities under the historic arrangement are now facing renewed scrutiny as First Nations searching former residential school sites confirm the discovery of what are believed to be hundreds of unmarked graves of Indigenous children forced to attend them.

Thousands of people told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that they had been neglected, starved, and both physically and sexually abused at the church-run, government-funded institutions.

According to the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, the Catholic Church was responsible for operating up to 70 per cent of residential schools in Canada. United, Anglican and Presbyterian churches were among those operating the remainder.

Several questions have been raised around why survivors didn't receive more compensation from the Catholic Church, including why the federal government discontinued its appeal filed not long after the 2015 decision was handed down.

"I question why that refusal to appeal occurred," Miller said.

"As everyone, I'm dumbfounded by it. End of the day the whole point was about compensation."

At the heart of the legal ruling was a dispute between a government lawyer and counsel for the Catholic entities about whether they had agreed to let the groups walk away from all obligations outlined in the settlement in exchange for $1.2 million, or only resolved a more specific part of those obligations.

The disagreement occurred as they went back and forth negotiating details of the arrangement. It ultimately fell to the court to resolve the issue, with Catholic entities contending they had a deal covering the entire settlement and Ottawa asserting that wasn't true.

After the federal government lost its case, it filed a notice to appeal in August 2015. Overshadowing the matter at the time was a federal election campaign consuming the country, which ended that October with the former Conservative government falling to current Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.