Responding to questions regarding the Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund Program Adjustment

The budget for the program remains the same

The program is funded on the basis of the Budget 2024 announcement on April 16, 2024, which totaled $91 million over 2 years, starting in 2024-2025, to support community-led efforts to locate, document, and memorialize burial sites at former residential schools.

Communities can apply for up to $3 million

Indigenous communities and organizations can apply for funding up to $3 million to support community-led and Survivor-centric initiatives to document, locate, and commemorate the children that did not return home and unmarked burial sites associated with former residential schools.

Terms and conditions for the program

The terms and conditions for the program will remain the same.

Types of activities that are eligible for funding

Eligible activities include efforts to:

• engage, coordinate, develop and provide capacity support for initiatives
• conduct research and knowledge gathering
• memorialize and commemorate burial sites, unmarked graves, and Survivors
• fieldwork investigation, identification and repatriation of remains

CIRNAC recognizes that these initiatives must be flexible and responsive to the broad range of community needs, realities and priorities.

Funds be used for mental health supports

Funds can be used for mental health supports during engagement sessions to provide mental health and emotional support services to former residential school students and community members.

Memorialization, commemoration of burial sites and fieldwork investigation are eligible for funding

As indicated in Minister Anandasangaree’s statement on August 16, 2024, the original Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Funding framework has been restored. This is in direct response to concerns and feedback received from Indigenous leaders and communities. As such, memorialization and commemoration of burial sites and fieldwork investigation are eligible for funding.

How funding decisions will be made

Funding decisions will be assessed using the same criteria as in previous fiscal years.

Application deadline

Proposals including a completed application, workplan, detailed budget and cashflow forecast can be submitted to the department throughout the fiscal year for current and future year funding. The department has established the annual deadline for applications for current fiscal year requests, including expenses incurred back to April 1st of the current fiscal year. Annual deadlines for funding applications are as follows:

When funding decisions will be made

The program is prioritizing assessing 2024-2025 funding requests. Future year funding requests (2025-26) remain under assessment. While the program aims to move forward with future year funding decisions later this fiscal year, the program is only providing funding decisions for current year initiatives at this time. This is because it is difficult for the Department to anticipate the level of funding requests that will be submitted this fall.

It is anticipated that the program will finalize all funding decisions for the current fiscal year (2024-25) by November or December 2024.

Can the funding for the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 fiscal periods be used for genetic testing, genealogy, excavation and archaeological activities?

Engagement sessions and concurrence by the affected communities will need to first be obtained before funding can be provided for genetic testing, genealogy, excavation, and archaeological activities.

How to confirm if there are any changes in funding and the potential impacts this will have on the work

Application will be reviewed on a case by case basis and will be assessed based on the program guidelines. There are no changes to the program criteria for accessing funding this fiscal year.

How often funding caps are reviewed and potentially adjusted

The program guidelines are applicable until 2025-2026 fiscal year. At this time we do not have any further information.

Are there different funding categories or tiers based on the scale or complexity of the search project?

Considerations will be given to address complexities related to working in remote or Northern regions.

Supplemental funding if new evidence or search areas are identified during the course of investigations?

There is a small reserve fund that could be considered for exceptional circumstances. The $3 million per year limit would still apply in such cases.

Are specific budget items or activities prioritized when considering funding allocations?

This is very dependent on each request. Some communities or organizations may be quite advanced in their work and need funding to get to the next stage which could be time-sensitive. Others may be at the beginning stages and have never received funding before. The program will remain flexible to account for these varying circumstances, while looking at activities that can be completed during the funding timeframe.

Opportunities for communities to collaborate on joint projects to potentially access larger funding pools

Collaborating on funding proposals is encouraged.