Funding cap on residential school searches ‘like a slap in the face,’ N.W.T. survivor says

July 26, 2024

Some residential school survivors and families in the N.W.T. are criticizing a change to federal funding for searches of former residential school sites.  The federal government is also facing backlash after it announced last week it would put a $500,000 annual cap on future searches. Previously, communities could get up to $3 million per year from the Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund. Connie Benwell is a language co-ordinator at Salt River First Nation in Fort Smith. Benwell, her twin brother and two of her sisters are residential school survivors. Her uncle also attended the Fort Chipewyan Residential School at the age of seven. He never came home and his body was never found…