Premier Jason Kenney announced the grant program in Edmonton on Wednesday (Photo: Government of Alberta / YouTube)

By Shaun Penner

Uncovering the legacy of residential schools

Alberta commits $8 million to locate and honour victims at residential school sites

Jun 23, 2021 | 12:20 PM

The province is putting forward $8 million to help Indigenous communities research undocumented deaths and burials at residential school sites in Alberta.

Premier Jason Kenney laid out the Alberta Residential School Community Research Program on Wednesday, which will be open to Indigenous communities and groups to lead their own research into the history of the residential school program in the province.

The funding can be used by communities to conduct activities such as gathering oral history and knowledge from elders, use ground-penetrating radar and other technology to search potential burial sites and to determine how communities wish to proceed with a burial site.

The grant program from the province comes after the discovery of the remains of at least 215 children at the former residential school site in Kamloops, B.C., the first site to have previously undocumented graves and deaths to be confirmed.

“The devastating discovery of 215 human remains in Kamloops has been a call to action,” said Kenney.

“A great deal of work has been done by First Nations and others to help identify remains and undocumented burial sites, but there is much more work that still needs to be done.”

Kenney says the horror of the residential school system remains hard to comprehend, and that his government has a moral obligation to help find unmarked grave sites and honour those victims.

Alberta was home to more residential schools than any other province in Canada, schools which ran from the 19^th century all the way up until the 1990’s.

In Alberta, 25 different federally funded and church-run schools were open at various points between 1872 and 1975. The nearest one to Grande Prairie was the Sturgeon Lake Residential School, which operated from 1907 to 1961.

Kenney says Indigenous communities and organizations can submit a research proposal for a single residential school site and can receive up to a maximum of $150,000. Applications are open until January 15, 2022.

“Today’s announcement of the community research grant is a much-needed step as part of the reconciliation process regarding the legacy of residential schools in Alberta,” said Chief Marlene Poitras, the regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations Alberta Association.

“While there is still much work ahead, this is a positive step forward and I commend the actions taken today.”

The federal government has also dedicated $27 million to such causes across Canada.