Appearance before the Standing Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples (APPA) - Government Response to APPA's 14th Report (February 25, 2026)

Logistics

Date: February 25, 2026
Time: 6:45 p.m. – 8:15 p.m
Location: Room 2, Senate of Canada Building, 2 Rideau St.

Witnesses

Parliamentary Analysis (this section includes content generated with support from AI)

• Hon. Michèle Audette (Progressive Senators Group) (Chair) may ask about trauma informed protocols for searches, supports for Survivors and families, alignment with MMIWG Calls for Justice, and timelines or mechanisms to compel church and other non federal entities to release records.
• Hon. Margo Greenwood (Independent Senators Group) (Deputy Chair) may ask about long term mental health, cultural, youth focused and land based supports for communities undertaking searches, as well as stable, multi year funding for the NCTR and community led initiatives.
• Hon. Bernadette Clement (Independent Senators Group) may ask about fixing ATIP/Privacy Act barriers, improving navigation supports for families, and how CIRNAC will coordinate across departments to ensure all outstanding records are transferred.
• Hon. Brian Francis (Progressive Senators Group) may ask about enforcement tools to compel church and third party compliance, clear milestones for records transfer, and how Indigenous governance and decision making are embedded in search, memorialization and data sovereignty work.
• Hon. Nancy Karetak Lindell (Independent Senators Group) may ask about resources for northern and Inuit contexts—travel, language services, land access—and how Inuit data governance and intergovernmental protocols will be respected and expedited.
• Hon. Mary Jane McCallum (Conservative) may ask about ensuring survivor led processes, cultural safety, long term healing supports, and concrete steps to eliminate legal and policy barriers that prevent families from accessing records.
• Hon. Marilou McPhedran (Non-Affiliated) may ask about applying rights based frameworks (e.g., UNDRIP), using administrative tools to accelerate access without new legislation, and publishing transparent tracking of non compliant entities.
• Hon. Kim Pate (Independent Senators Group) may ask about supports for families facing intersecting institutional harms (e.g., child welfare, justice), legal service access, and time bound commitments to remove sealing provisions and privacy barriers.
• Hon. Paul (PJ) Prosper (Canadian Senators Group) may ask about Indigenous data sovereignty, jurisdictional coordination, and whether the response includes co developed legal frameworks to protect burial sites and formalize Indigenous authority across provinces and territories.
• Hon. Karen Sorensen (Independent Senators Group) may ask about operational readiness—funding for logistics, land permissions, site access, safety—and predictable, multi year support for municipalities, archives and local partners involved in search and commemoration.
• Hon. Scott Tannas (Canadian Senators Group) may ask about clear deliverables, costing, governance structures, public reporting schedules, and whether new legislative powers are actually required to compel records or if existing authorities will be enforced.
• Hon. Judy A. White (Progressive Senators Group) may ask about respecting regional Indigenous specificities, ensuring local governance over burial site protocols and storytelling, and applying gender equality and human rights lenses in implementation.

Recent APPA studies, reports and government responses

• Twentieth Report: Missing Records, Missing Children (PDF)
• Bill C-15, Budget 2025 Implementation Act, No. 1, Part 5, Division 35;
• Bill S-2, An Act to amend the Indian Act (new registration entitlements); and
• Examine and report on the Voices of Youth Indigenous Leaders events.

Recent Correspondence

In the Media

B.C. community says archeologists confirm unmarked graves

Beyond 94 | 74. Inform the families of children who died at residential schools of the child's burial location | CBC News

Search detects 114 'unmarked burial features' on former McIntosh Indian Residential School property | CBC News

Meeting Proceedings

The meeting is scheduled for February 25, 2026, 6:45 p.m. – 8:15 p.m., with CIRNAC officials appearing with witnesses from Library and Archives Canada.

The Chair will call the meeting to order and provide instructions for the meeting proceedings. They will then introduce the witnesses and invite them to deliver opening remarks (limit of 5 minutes). Following the opening remarks, there will be rounds of questions from Committee.

It is recommended that all speakers speak at a moderate pace and at an appropriate volume to ensure they are heard by the interpreters. All witnesses are asked to mute their microphones unless they are speaking. A new practice that was recently instituted as a measure to protect interpreters from injury, is that when earpieces are not in use by witnesses, that they be placed on the designated white circles installed on the table.

Departmental Officials appearing as witnesses should avoid making commitments to parliamentarians outside of the meeting's official proceedings. If a Member of Parliament or Senator approaches a witness with questions post-appearance, they should politely redirect that request to the Clerk of the Committee, who will then officially liaise with the Department.

The meeting can be watched via ParlVU, however there may be an up to 70-second delay with the webcast.

Other Information for Appearing In-Person

Witnesses should arrive early to allow time for security screening. Screening could take 30 minutes or more for those without a Hill pass.

Key Data Points

• The Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund currently has 164 agreements in place with Indigenous communities and partners for a total of $280 million as of January 8, 2026. See Annex A for a full list of recipients.
• These funds support community-led and Survivor-centric efforts to locate, document, and memorialize burial sites associated with former Indian residential schools, and honour families' wishes to repatriate children's remains.
• Investigation work has been conducted for 61% of former residential school sites (89 of 140 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement and 5 residential schools included in the Newfoundland and Labrador Residential Schools Settlement Agreement).
• These initiatives supported extensive community‑led truth‑telling and healing efforts, including over 330 interviews, more than 40 ceremonial and commemorative events, at least 25 engagement sessions, archival research of thousands of documents, ground searches in 7 communities identifying 370+ anomalies and confirming 88 unmarked graves, and multiple memorial projects—all guided by Survivors, Elders, and Indigenous protocols.

Key Messages

• Addressing the ongoing legacy of residential schools is a priority for the Government of Canada. The Residential Schools Missing Children – Community Support Fund allows Indigenous communities and families to undertake community-led and Survivor-centric initiatives to research, locate, and document burial sites associated with former residential schools.
• The search for missing children and unmarked burial sites at former residential schools is a complex, multiyear process that will likely take decades to complete. It must be Indigenous-led and Survivor-centric to honor and prioritize community cultural, spiritual, and emotional needs.
• Communities are in varying stages of readiness to address this work. Many communities have already completed, or are in the process of undertaking, steps to locate missing children through archival research, knowledge gathering, and various geophysical and survey methods, and in some cases, findings have been publicly announced. A limited number of communities are getting ready to proceed with exhumation and identification of children's remains.
• Examples of community work:
  • Research has led to the locating of the graves of two children – Alma Beaulieu (Deninu K'ue First Nation) and Juliette Rabbit Skin (Cree Nation of Mistissini) who died while attending Indian Residential Schools. The remains of both children have been repatriated to their home communities.
  • The archival research and knowledge gathering undertaken by the Cross Lake First Nation allows community members to answer their questions about children who attended the Cross Lake Indian Residential School. The goal has been "to build a bridge to the past by fostering a digital space where the stories of Residential School Students can be shared to ensure their memory endures".
  • The Assiniboia Residential School Legacy Group has created the Assiniboia Residential School Monument and Gathering Place in the City of Winnipeg. The beautiful Monument includes an inscription of the names of all of the children who attended, and died while attending the Assiniboia Indian Residential School.

Current Status

• Since the beginning of the Program in 2021-2022, CIRNAC has received 195 formal requests for funding from Indigenous communities and organizations under the Program, totaling over $ 776.5 million. The Program currently has 164 agreements in place with Indigenous communities and partners for a total of $280 million
• Since 2021-22, the Government of Canada has invested $323.3 million to support the implementation of Calls to Action 74 to 76.
• Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada will continue to:
  • support communities through the Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund;
  • collaborate with Survivors, Indigenous communities and others to support the work of locating, documenting, and commemorating cemeteries and unmarked burials associated with former Indian residential schools and honouring families' wishes to repatriate children's remains; and
  • ensure Survivors, Indigenous communities, and families guide this work at their pace, in accordance with the principles identified in Call to Action 76.

Background

• The Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action 74 to 76 sets out an approach to honour missing children from Indian Residential Schools as well as undocumented burial sites.
• On May 27, 2021, Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc announced the identification of over 200 potential unmarked burial sites at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, prompting Indigenous communities and Survivors across Canada to initiate similar efforts to locate missing children at other residential school sites.
• In June 2021, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada launched the Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund to provide support to Indigenous communities and partners to develop and implement community-led initiatives to locate, document, and memorialize undocumented burial sites associated with Residential Schools and to honour families' wishes to identify and repatriate children's remains. These include 140 residential schools included in the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement and the 5 schools included in the Newfoundland and Labrador Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.

Key Data Points

• As required by the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the Government of Canada disclosed more than 4 million documents to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015.
• A further more than 1.5 million documents and higher-quality versions of previously disclosed images were subsequently provided by Canada to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation under the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding signed in January 2022.
• Canada has since identified an additional 23 million potentially relevant Residential Schools-related records under expanded relevancy parameters.

Key Messages

• The Government is committed to identifying all previously-unshared Residential Schools-related records in its possession - per the definition established by the Indian Residential School Documents Advisory Committee - and exploring existing barriers to their release, with a view to sharing all possible records with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.
• As required by the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the Government of Canada disclosed more than 4 million documents to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015. The documents were transferred by the Commission at the end of its mandate to their current home at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.
• The courts have consistently found that Canada has met its document disclosure obligations under the Settlement Agreement and that no further action is required.

Current Status

• Then Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, Marc Miller, committed in 2021 to develop a strategy for the identification and sharing of previously unshared Residential Schools records with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.
• The development of any process to share additional documents will be mindful of existing legislation, including privacy legislation, ongoing litigation, and other settlements.
• While some federal records identification and other activities continue, the work of the Indian Residential School Documents Advisory Committee is officially on hold.
• Outside of the process, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation are working collaboratively to seek Court approval of a process to share 'non-claim' records related to the administration of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.

Background

• In December 2021, then Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, Marc Miller, stated that the Government of Canada is committed to taking the steps necessary to ensure we continue to do all we can to share the Residential School-related documents we have, while respecting Survivors' wishes, legislation, court orders, settlement agreements and ongoing litigation processes.
• The records targeted through this current exercise are in addition to the more than 4 million documents related to the historical administration of residential schools disclosed to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 pursuant to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. This project has a broader mandate and focuses on identifying and sharing all possible documents of historical interest to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation which have not already been disclosed.
• In March 2022, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada received approval to:
  • Implement an Advisory Committee comprised of federal, Survivor, Indigenous community, and expert representatives to provide guidance on prioritization, standards where applicable and recommendations on broad approaches to different types of documents.
  • Lead a whole of government process to scope and develop a federal approach to identify and manage the disclosure of Indian Residential Schools related documents to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (beyond the historical document collection).
• Budget 2022 included an investment of $1.6 million for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada to support these activities, including to establish an independently-chaired, interdepartmental advisory committee to guide the work. This funding expired March 31, 2024. No additional funding has been identified to support document identification activities, including the work of the Advisory Committee.
• Established in February 2023, the Indian Residential School Documents Advisory Committee was chaired by former Chief Cadmus Delorme and included as members residential school Survivors, community representatives, Elders, Indigenous technical experts, the Office of the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, and representatives from thirteen (13) federal departments and agencies. Indigenous committee members were selected in consultation with the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Métis National Council, and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.
• In June 2023, Committee Chair Delorme and the then Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations were joined by the Executive Director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to announce that up to an estimated 23 million potentially relevant additional Residential Schools documents had been identified through an initial scoping exercise.
• A critical part of the work of the Advisory Committee was defining what constitutes a residential schools document. An initial definition – informed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission records disclosure exercise – was used by the stakeholder departments to scope potentially relevant documents. A final definition developed and approved by the Advisory Committee has since been established to guide federal records identification efforts. Using this new, more detailed definition as Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada continues to identify relevant documents is key to ensuring Survivors' voices are heard and respected throughout the process.
• In August 2024, Committee Chair Delorme advised the then Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations that the non-government members of the Advisory Committee had suspended their role indefinitely due to what they perceived as a lack of sufficient financial investment by the Government of Canada.

Independent Assessment Process Documents:

• The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 2017 that records containing personal information from the Independent Assessment Process (and the preceding Alternative Dispute Resolution process) must be destroyed, except for those preserved at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation with Survivors' express consent under the My Records, My Choice program. The decision of the Supreme Court is final, and was made to protect the confidentiality of Survivors.

Key Data Points

• Budget 2019 provided $2.6 million over two years starting in 2020-2021 to support project funding to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to advance Calls to Action 72 (National Residential School Student Death Register) and 73 (National Residential School Cemetery Register).
• Budget 2022 provided $84.5 million over five years starting in 2022-2023 to support the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, including:
  • $13.6 million in project funding for Calls to Action 72 and 73;
  • $11.3 million in sustainability funding to support core operations of the National Centre; and
  • $59.6 million in a one-time grant to contribute to the cost of the construction for the National Centre's new headquarters.
• In July 2022, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, in partnership with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, established the National Advisory Committee on Residential Schools Missing Children and Unmarked Burials. A total of $5.7 million was provided to support the activities of the National Advisory Committee which concluded its work in March 2025.
• A one-time grant of $10 million was previously provided to the National Centre in 2017 as per Call to Action 78 to assist in establishing the National Centre (funding of $10 million over seven years to the National Centre).
• 47.3% of Survivors and families have received requested materials from the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation archives to advance research on missing children and unmarked graves / burial sites.
• In their 2024 Annual Report, the National Centre indicates that 26,036 pages of records were provided to Survivors and intergenerational Survivors.

Key Messages

• The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation is the primary centralized non-government repository for historical records pertaining to residential schools in Canada.
• The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation is responsible for providing historical records and data to support the implementation of Calls to Action 74 – 76 (missing children and burial information) and work with communities to provide documents for inclusion in Calls to Action 72 (National Residential School Student Death Register) and 73 (National Residential School Cemetery Registry).
• The Government of Canada is committed to its partnership with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to bring healing and reconciliation to Survivors of residential schools.

Current Status

• The National Centre is continuing its work to digitize and make available records from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
• Some communities have expressed concerns with accessing records including delays in receiving records. The National Centre is continuing to engage with communities to address their concerns.
• Work also continues to complete, finalize and maintain the National Residential School Student Death Register and the National Residential School Cemetery Registry as per Calls to Action 72 and 73 respectively.
• Sustainability funding for the National Centre ends on March 31, 2027. Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada is considering how to sustain funding for the National Centre to support its core operations.

Background

• Established pursuant to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation is the primary, centralized, non-government repository for historical records pertaining to residential schools and the children who died while in the care of these schools.
• The National Centre is mandated to preserve the materials created or received by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission pursuant to its mandate, and make records available to Survivors, families, communities, the general public, educators and researchers.
• The National Centre continues to gather, preserve and protect the truth of Survivors through records and oral history gathering.
• Housed within the University of Manitoba, the National Centre operates within the academic and administrative structure of the University, and is administered according to the terms of a Trust Deed and Administrative Agreement with the University.
• The National Centre's activities are guided by a seven-member Governing Circle and a seven-member Survivors Circle that ensures that Survivors' voices and perspectives remain central to the National Centre's programs and policies.
• The National Centre operates in accordance with Manitoba's National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation Act which came into force on July 13, 2015 and within the province's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which regulates how personal information is shared with requestors.

Key Data Points

• Budget 2024 announced $5 million for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada to establish a program to combat residential schools denialism.

Key Messages

• Denying the reality of residential schools, or the harms caused by those schools, is wrong, and the Government of Canada does not support this rhetoric. Any misinformation or disinformation on this issue can be damaging to Survivors, families, Indigenous communities, and our reconciliation efforts.
• As part of the government's commitment to educating Canadians about the reality of residential schools in this country, Budget 2024 invested $5 million over three years, beginning in 2025-26, to combat residential school denialism.

Current Status

• The Department is currently exploring program delivery options.

Background

• Recent years have seen an increase in incidences of individuals and organizations denying the history and ongoing impacts of Indian residential schools including, perhaps most disturbingly, the assertion that unmarked graves and burial sites associated with former residential schools are a "hoax."
• Community, regional and national Indigenous leaders have called for the federal government to act to counter denialism, demanding both legislative and policy responses to address this harmful trend. The Special Interlocutor, consistent with her mandate, focused primarily on an appropriate suite of legislative remedies. She and others, including the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, have highlighted the need for educational and other programming to inform the Canadian public and counter denialists' voices.
• In response, Budget 2024 included $5 million over three years, beginning in 2025-26, for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada to establish a program to counter Indian residential schools denialism.

Key Messages

• The Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of Canada is leading on the Government's careful review of the Special Interlocutor's Final Report and its recommendations to inform next steps.
• Canada continues to support Indigenous peoples as they undertake the crucial work of revealing the truth about missing children and unmarked graves and burial sites associated with former residential schools.
• The Government remains committed to addressing the ongoing legacy of residential schools and advancing reconciliation with Indigenous peoples in Canada.

Background

• In June 2022, Kimberly Murray was appointed as the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada to identify needed measures and make recommendations for a new federal legal framework to ensure the respectful and culturally appropriate treatment of unmarked graves and burial sites of children at former Indian residential schools.
• Released at the Special Interlocutor's Closing National Gathering on October 29, 2024, her final report, entitled "Upholding Sacred Obligations: Reparations for Missing and Disappeared Indigenous Children and Unmarked Burials in Canada", presents 42 obligations under four main themes:
  1. Activating and Enforcing International Obligations
  2. Implementing Indigenous Laws and Decolonizing the Canadian Legal Framework
  3. Finding Truth, Rematriating Lands, and Repatriating the Children
  4. Supporting Indigenous-Led Healing and Countering Settler Amnesty
• The federal government is implicated in the majority of the obligations, including:
  • Establishing an independent, Indigenous-led National Commission of Investigation into Missing and Disappeared Indigenous Children and Unmarked Burials;
  • Fully implementing CTAs 71-76, and enlarging the scope of CTA 73 (online registry of residential school cemeteries);
  • A broad range of actions including supporting Survivors, healing, memorialization and commemoration, providing reparations and compensation to families/descendants, issuing apologies;
  • Admitting to enforced disappearances, signing and ratifying relevant international legal instruments and making use of international legal processes, and upholding Indigenous laws;
  • Protecting burial sites, fighting denialism, supporting the rematriation of lands and the repatriation of children, modifying heritage legislation as required, and supporting a registry;
  • Obligations 14-24 address a range of actions related to Indigenous data sovereignty and records: handling of records, records-related legislation, access to and protection of records;
  • Obligations 38-40 call for reparations from non-government organizations (media, universities, churches, etc.).