“Today marks 10 years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its Final Report on the tragedy that is Canada’s residential school system.

For more than a century, Canada ran residential schools. Over 150,000 First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children were forcibly taken from their homes, separated from their families and communities, and stripped of their languages, cultures, and identities. Residential schools reflect the architecture of a policy of erasure – a truth that Survivors have carried with them when others would not. A truth recounted more than 6,500 times before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, so we could no longer say that we did not know.

We reflect on the devastating legacy of the residential school system. As a government and as a people, we match remembrance with responsibility – the responsibility to advance reconciliation and create conditions for renewal and recovery. We are moving forward on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action. We are advancing the Calls for Justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. We are also implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act in partnership with Indigenous Peoples.

We are building together in health, in education, in economic opportunity, and in housing.We are doubling the Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program and building projects with greater Indigenous equity ownership. We are investing $2.8 billion to build off-reserve, urban, rural, and Northern Indigenous housing, and $1.7 billion to build on-reserve housing. Eighty-five per cent of drinking water advisories on reserve have been lifted, we have allocated an additional $2.3 billion to end the remaining advisories, and in the spring, we will introduce legislation to accelerate this progress.

As we mark 10 years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report, we pledge to build a future where Survivors are honoured with remembrance, with justice, and with a stronger, fairer Canada. A Canada made stronger by the resilience of Indigenous communities. Reconciliation is a task that must be lived and practised every day. We are seized with the task ahead of us.”

For more information: The 24-hour safe and confidential National Residential School Crisis Line, available at 1-866-925-4419, provides crisis referral services to Survivors and their families and explains how to obtain other health supports from the Government of Canada. The Hope for Wellness Help Line provides immediate, toll-free telephone and online chat-based emotional support and crisis intervention to all Indigenous people in Canada. Both telephone and online chat services are available 24/7 in English and French. Telephone support is also available upon request in Cree, Ojibway, and Inuktitut. Trained counsellors are available at 1‑855‑242‑3310 or via hopeforwellness.ca.