Province to spend $10M more on residential school burial site searches in Ontario
Global News
The additional $10-million funding announced Thursday in Ontario's fall economic statement brings the total spending promise to $20 million over three years.
Ontario is doubling its funding commitment to support searches for burial sites near residential schools.
The additional $10-million funding announced today in the province’s fall economic statement brings the total spending promise to $20 million over three years.
The government has said the money is meant to support Indigenous-led search processes to identify, investigate and protect burial sites near the facilities notorious for abuse and violence.
Also in the economic update, the government said it would wave fees for the next three years for families and communities looking to obtain death records for Indigenous children who attended residential schools.
It’s also extended a fee waiver for residential school survivors looking to reclaim traditional names.
The initial funding for burial site searches was announced this summer after reports that the remains of 215 children were found at a Kamloops, B.C. residential school.
More Indigenous communities announced similar disturbing discoveries across Canada in the following months.
The findings back up testimony from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report, which recommended governments work to locate, document and commemorate where children who died at the schools were buried.