National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation gets $28M funding boost to continue critical work

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation will receive $28.5 million in funding over the next five years to continue its vital work in collecting and reviewing historical records, survivor statements and sacred items, the federal government announced on Wednesday.

Residential school survivors and community members gathered at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, where the centre is located, to share the impact the funding will have.

"There's no [other] place like this. There's no place that holds the collections we have of the true history of the torment that many survived and experienced," survivor Eugene Arcand said at the news conference.

The federal funding will also support community-led efforts to locate, identity and memorialize missing children and unmarked burials. 

The funding announced Wednesday will also support other initiatives, including the National Residential School Student Death Register, the online National Cemetery Register and the National Advisory Committee on Missing Children and Unmarked Burials, a news release said.

"It's positive steps and investments like this that are mutually beneficial, not only to the Indigenous people, the original people of this land, but to the many newcomers who have come to this country seeking peace and happiness," Arcand said.

The announcement comes seven months after the federal government's latest budget committed $60 million in funding toward a new facility for the truth and reconciliation centre.

The centre's new, permanent home, being built on the former Southwood golf course lands near the University of Manitoba, will be a place where survivors, their families and people from across the world can learn about residential schools and the wider history of colonialism.

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller was at Wednesday's news release to announce the latest funding.

He said during his last visit to the centre, he was struck by the fact that some survivors told him they have difficulty going into its current home — a University of Manitoba building — "because it reminds them … of the experience of residential school."

"And it's unacceptable," he said.

NCTR executive director Stephanie Scott says that with guidance from survivors, the centre has developed a strong vision of how it will ensure the truth about the residential school system is finally told, and how it can be shared with all Canadians and the rest of the world.

The funding announced Wednesday is crucial to fulfilling that vision, she said.

"The NCTR was never intended to do this work alone. We will continue to build partnerships and networks to advance reconciliation and advance the movement for truth. We have decades of work to do," Scott said.