Mohawk Institute Residential School survivors have been waiting 6 months for money due from Ottawa
Survivors want to live to see the search end but feel 'invisible' amid long wait for promised money
The survivor-led group overseeing the search for potential unmarked graves at the former Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford, Ont., says they've been waiting over half a year for the Trudeau government to provide the next $2.4 million instalment of a promised $10.2 million.
"I work for a group of survivors who are all seniors and they're invisible again because suddenly we're not getting answers ... when you're 80 and 90-years-old should you still be fighting like this?," Laura Arndt, the lead of the Survivors' Secretariat, told CBC Hamilton late last week.
"If this was your family member who was in their 80s, had been as traumatized as they were and then finally found their legs to say 'I need this to be addressed,' and then nothing happens. It does re-traumatize."
The secretariat secured $10.2 million from the federal government over three years in January and $1.3 million from the provincial government in May — both amounts are far below what the secretariat requested.
The money has gone into the ground search and researching archives, among other things.
The former Mohawk Institute opened in 1828 and closed in 1970, making it one of the oldest and longest-running residential schools in Canada.
Some 15,000 students from 20 First Nation communities were at the school. Many of them were abducted from their homes and abused there.
The secretariat says documents it has obtained so far show at least 97 students died and Arndt said the number of communities impacted by the residential school has grown from 22 to 49.
Arndt said the secretariat's goal is to search a total of 0.8 hectares (two acres) by the end of the year. The site is roughly 243 hectares.
Delayed funding slowing down search efforts
Arndt said the secretariat got the first instalment of $2.5 million but is waiting on the next instalment, which is only half of the approved funding for the fiscal period of 2021 to 2022.
She also said the secretariat is waiting on the government to send along an official agreement for the funding.
"We did everything we were asked to do," she said.
"I can't proceed with the next wave of flowing funding around document search, data and work associated with allowances because if I were to pay them, I'd have nothing left in the secretariat's coffers ... I won't be able to make payroll," she said.
"We're three quarters into this year and we're still penny pinching ... I'm making operational decisions based on a promise."
Arndt added as a result, she's had to slow down on spending, which she said can work against the secretariat because it could seem the group doesn't need all that money.
Government says secretariat wasn't incorporated
Jennifer Cooper, a spokesperson for Crown Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, told CBC Hamilton the secretariat wasn't incorporated during the initial funding agreement and had the funding flow through a prior arrangement between the Woodland Cultural Centre (the new name for the former Mohawk Institute) and Indigenous Services Canada.
Cooper said the secretariat has since become incorporated and requested the funding to go directly to them, which meant the ministry had to add the secretariat as a new recipient in the department's internal systems.
"These internal processes and the transition of funds has caused delays in delivering the funding in an expedited manner," she said.
"However, this process is coming to a close and it is expected that the funding will be flowed to the Survivors' Secretariat in the near future."
'I feel like we're still playing games'
Arndt said on Tuesday the ministry sent an official agreement Friday evening, after CBC Hamilton's request to the ministry for comment.
"I just started laughing," she said. "I feel like we're still playing games, despite all the promises."
Arndt said the secretariat's incorporation wasn't finalized recently, but by the end of 2021.
She added the government did a test deposit in April, which she said should've showed the secretariat was ready to receive funds.
WATCH: House of Commons gives unanimous consent to recognizing residential schools as genocide
Asked if the ministry would eventually give the secretariat more money, getting closer to the original $24 million request, Cooper said the ministry would be "responsive to the needs of Indigenous applicants and current recipients, to ensure they have adequate funding for the current and future fiscal years in support of their residential school initiative."
Arndt said the response is dismissive.
"This isn't an initiative. This is holding Canada accountable," she said. "Canada needs to commit to a 10-year strategy ... it has to be an ongoing funding envelope.
The dilemma in all this for me is for the survivors to get their answers — it's a horrific thing to say — this work will continue beyond many of their lives, so when the survivors want answers, that includes their children, their grandchildren and the legacy."
All this comes as members of Parliament gave unanimous consent last week in favour of a motion calling on the federal government to recognize Canada's residential schools as genocide.
"Survivors want answers into the genocide they survived ... they want justice for the children who didn't," she said.
Support is available for anyone affected by their experience at residential schools and those who are triggered by these reports.
A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for residential school survivors and others affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.
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