Torngat Mountains MHA says she won't accept residential schools apology from provincial government

Newfoundland and Labrador's minister of Indigenous affairs and reconciliation says the provincial government's long-awaited apology for its role in residential schools is coming soon, but an Inuk MHA says she's not interested.

In an interview with CBC News, Lela Evans, the MHA for Torngat Mountains, said she won't accept an apology from the provincial government until there are significant improvements to health care, communications, transportation and other infrastructure in northern Labrador.

"When you look at the Inuit of northern Labrador, we never, ever got equal access to services and infrastructure. We've been neglected year after year after year," she said.

Evan's said she didn't see enough targeting health care and the cost of living for people living in Labrador in the 2022 provincial budget, which she called "disappointing on every level." Evans said she won't accept an apology from the provincial government until she sees more progress on those issues.

"There's no reconciliation. I won't accept it. I will not accept it. And I don't think any Indigenous groups can until there's real reconciliation.

Thousands of Indigenous children in Newfoundland and Labrador were taken from their communities to attend five residential schools run by the International Grenfell Association or the Moravian church.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered an apology on behalf of the federal government in November 2017, and then-premier Dwight Ball promised to deliver one on behalf of the provincial government too. More than five years later, that apology has yet to materialize.

The delay has been criticized by Indigenous groups and residential school survivors, but the government has repeatedly reiterated its intention to give the apology — it has pointed to COVID-19 and scheduling as two main reasons behind the extended delay.

While speaking with reporters on Thursday, Cartwright-L'Anse au Clair MHA Lisa Dempster — the minister responsible for Labrador Affairs, Indigenous Affairs and Reconciliation - said the apology is coming "in the not too distant future," but declined to give a timeline.

"We are well on our way. As a government we made a commitment to carry out the apologies and, like many things, the pandemic hit in March 2020 and there was a pause. What I can tell you is recently the draft texts have gone out into the hands of the various Indigenous groups in this province," she said.

But Evans said the apology isn't enough — and she isn't impressed by the government's decision to rename the Colonial Building and Discovery Day either.

"What good is that when people still struggle to feed their children, heat their homes, to provide a house?" she asked.

Evans said she's particularly concerned about the decision in the budget to amalgamate the four regional health authorities into one, province-wide health authority — a move she believes will put Labrador at a disadvantage, especially if the headquarters are far away.

"It's not that they don't really want to help us," she said. "They don't know how to help us because they're so far removed from Labrador that [they] just can't fathom the issues."