After discovery of unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia in 2021, the federal government allocated over $200 million to support initiatives aimed at documenting deaths and commemorating the children who did not return home. However, recent reports indicate a substantial reduction in this funding.
Kimberly Murray, the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves, told the Nation a few months ago that the initial funding, which averaged about $71 million annually, has been cut to $45.5 million per year.
Continuing the investigative process is essential for healing, accountability, and for the protection of future generations, says George Pachano, Residential School Research Project Manager for the Grand Council of the Crees. Since 2022, Pachano has coordinated the search of unmarked graves at the Fort George Roman Catholic residential school near Chisasibi.
His preliminary investigations were based on stories from people who had gone to residential schools, then visiting a few locations mentioned in those stories with the trained dogs that stopped and identified that something was there.
“The first couple of years, it was basically trying to get information and attending a few gatherings just to get information on what we needed,” Pachano said. “In the ground, underground, where bodies have been buried, even long periods, say 100 years, they can still pick it out.”
Pachano and his team obtained ground penetrating radar (GPR) equipment from the Université de Montréal. However, as “there was a lot of overgrowth in that area, where the school stood, we had to clear and cut all that, for that team to come in, so they can do their job.”
An April 2024 report stated, “they don’t find bodies, they find anomalies,” and “there are areas that definitely need further investigation.”
Pachano said it does require further investigation with a S4 machine, similar to GPR, to analyze the results with the sound waves and high accuracy. He believes he can continue his research with the money left, but “there’s not very much and we still have to do some clear cutting as there’s still a lot of overgrowth.”
This project could take two or three more years, but he said the team needs to hire an archivist. “We need people to do the work, but we cannot hire a full-time researcher now because of the uncertainty of the funds.”
Pachano thinks national or provincial organizations like Assembly of First Nations and Indigenous leaders should lobby governments for more funding.
“Funding has to continue,” he said. “We can’t just leave it like that, because it’s important for people who went to residential schools, for the parents who lost their children. And siblings, they need to know where their brothers and sisters are.
“This has to be settled before we move on. For me, anyway,” he added.
According to Crown-Indigenous Relations Canada, all funding decisions under Budget 2024 aimed to provide money to as many communities as possible with a focus on continuing the progress of current projects.
“The Government of Canada has not made any funding cuts to the Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund,” said Pascal Laplante, a spokesperson for Crown-Indigenous Relations Canada, in an email to the Nation.
Since 2019, Ottawa has provided $417.6 million to support Indigenous-led projects which responds to the Calls to Action 72 to 76 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report, he added.
“The funding was extended to provide an additional $91 million over two years, starting in 2024-25,” he said. “Funding decisions have been provided for 2024-25 fiscal year initiatives only, the deadline for 2025-26 funding applications is September 15, 2025.”
Laplante believes this is difficult but important work and there is a need for the federal government to take appropriate measures to support communities in searching for and commemorating missing children at former residential school sites.
“Under the residential school system, some Indigenous children were lost and some died,” he wrote. “Acknowledging that fact – and taking concrete actions to address these wrongs – is essential to our shared path towards reconciliation.”