The Office of the Treaty Commissioner is pleased to see the Government of Canada recognize the need to fully understand and realize the true history of Canada in the budget.

Increased support to communities to document, locate, and memorialize burial sites of former residential schools and to the digitization of documents related to day schools is important. I

Justice Canada will receive needed funds to support an interlocutor to work collaboratively with Indigenous people and make recommendations for change to strengthen federal laws and practices to protect and preserve unmarked burial sites.

The commemoration of former residential school sites with funding through Parks Canada is another step towards helping all Canadians understand the horrible, ongoing impact and legacy of these systems on Indigenous people, families and communities.

In order to have true reconciliation the truth needs to be widely understood.

Along with this new funding announced we applaud the recommitment of funds towards making changes that lead to full Treaty implementation, but it doesn’t stop there. With the funds needs to be going support and activism to ensure all documents relating to residential schools are made public, that Indigenous people across the country have access to clean water, health care, and education in environments that are safe and free from racism. With the funding needs to come the drive to make the changes that allow systems to be beneficial to us all.