Discrepancies over funding: Survivors Secretariat warns of closure

The Six Nations Survivors Secretariat oversaw searches for possible burials around the former Mohawk Institute Residential School beginning in 2021 with ground penetrating radar technology. (Surviviors Secretariat File Photo)

By Joshua Santos Writer A financial dispute between the federal government and the Survivors’ Secretariat has placed the future of critical residential school investigations at risk. The organization is warning that it can be forced to fold by the end of March. Ottawa claims the Secretariat still has $4.2 million in unspent funds while the organization insists that money has already been allocated, leaving it without resources to continue its work. “They are denying us funding because they say we have a surplus,” said Laura Arndt, secretariat lead. “Canada knows we do not have a surplus. We have been essentially begging them for funding since June. The hardest part is Canada is not being honest about our financial resources, and they are using that to say they are not funding…

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