Time and funding crunch challenges Atlantic working group

Only one school in Atlantic Canada is recognized under the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement (IRSSA), but those students are not the only ones impacted by the trauma of being torn away from their families.

“We have the least number of survivors … recognized under the settlement agreement (at) 750. But we estimate it could be 10 times more,” said Vanessa Nevin of the Atlantic Policy Congress (APC) of First Nations Chiefs.

Nevin is co-chair for the regional working group, which consists of the settlement stakeholders, and is providing advice to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the national event to be held in Halifax Oct. 26 to 29.
Cultural and logistical committees, which consist largely of survivors, were also established by the APC.
“We’re making it so that survivors are driving this event,” said Nevin.

Shubenacadie Indian Residential School is the only residential school in Atlantic Canada that fits the IRSSA formula. Built by the federal government 60 kms from Halifax, Shubenacadie was operated by the Archdiocese of Halifax from 1929 to 1967.

Other Indian residential schools operated in Atlantic Canada but because they were run by the church or provincial government and had no federal connection, students who attended those schools do not qualify for compensation under the IRSSA.

A concept paper prepared by the TRC for the Halifax event tracked the figures for Common Experience Payments as of September 2010 with Nova Scotia at 369, New Brunswick with 128, Newfoundland and Labrador with 22 and Prince Edward Island with 43. Only students attending residential schools recognized by the IRSSA are eligible for CEP.

The lack of official residential school survivor numbers, a small budget to work towards the national event, and plans that have had to be made in a short time frame have made the process frustrating, said Nevin.

The Halifax event is following on the heels of the second national event, which was held in Inuvik. That event had a budget of nearly $1 million for survivor travel, said Nevin, compared to the $85,000 the Atlantic has been offered. The APC has made a proposal to Aboriginal and Northern Affairs for more funding.

Nevin said the working group, which will mete out the federal dollars to the communities, will leave disbursement of the funds to the communities.
Communities will have to decide whether funding goes only to survivors of the one recognized residential school or to survivors of all residential schools.

“We do understand that choices need to be made when there is limited funding and there will need to be priorities set,” she said.

Added to the planning frustration for Nevin’s group is the understanding that Halifax is a TRC event and as such needs to reflect consistency with the other TRC national events.

In mid-September, with less than six weeks until the three-day event, the APC community regional group was still only discussing cultural ideas that would make the event meaningful for First Nations and Inuit in Atlantic Canada.

“We would like to see an event that is culturally relevant for our region where our survivors feel that it is healing for them to attend and that they have the financial means to attend and that it expresses what our healing needs are,” said Nevin.

In 2009, the APC sent a letter to the TRC asking to be part of the planning process for the national event to be held in Atlantic Canada. In March 2010, a subcommittee was formed from the Outreach Residential School Atlantic Committee to determine what they would like to see at the national event. However, it wasn’t until June of this year that the regional working group was struck. The cultural and logistical committees were formed in July. Nevin said the regional bodies are only advisory to the TRC.

“We’ve been under a compressed time frame to plan a national event,” said Nevin, adding that the event planners were only hired in mid-August.

However, she pointed out that this is a TRC event and that “ultimately the TRC will need to be accountable to survivors and government and the Canadian public.”

Halifax was chosen because the city “provides optimal opportunity to educate a young and growing population on the history and legacy of residential schools,” said the TRC’s concept paper.

Nevin said all the hearings leading up to the Halifax event, as well as the event itself, are open to all residential school survivors. Hearings began in early September and will conclude in mid-October.  There were seven days set aside for six locations: Fredericton; Goose Bay and Hopedale in Newfoundland; Charlottetown; and Indian Brook and Eskasoni in Nova Scotia. The locations selected for the hearings were on the recommendation of the APC.

The first hearing on Sept. 8 in Fredericton was held at Government House.

“That was an important location,” said Nevin. “(Lt.-Gov.) Graydon Nicholas has been a real supporter of survivors and is very trusted among survivors of our community.”
Nicholas is Maliseet, born and raised on the Tobique First Nation.