Hon. Brian Francis: Welcome, minister. It’s nice to see you again.

On August 23, the independent chairperson and members of the Residential School Documents Advisory Committee suspended their roles, citing over a year of ignored requests for additional federal funding to contract experts to audit and retrieve uncatalogued records and other activities.

Given your government’s stated commitment to releasing potentially millions of documents containing information about the lives and deaths of residential schoolchildren, what steps have you and your department taken to ensure the advisory committee receives the necessary funding to resume and complete its mandate?

Hon. Gary Anandasangaree, P.C., M.P., Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations: Thank you, senator. First of all, I appreciate the work of the advisory committee. A lot of work has gone in, and I know some 24 million documents have been subject to their work since they were established.

Currently, they have the resources until the end of this fiscal year, which is March 31. Like any program that we have as a federal government, this is the cycle that we work on. I can assure this house that we will find resources as these resources expire.

Currently, I am very confident in saying that the resources are available until the end of this fiscal year. Unfortunately, the nature of the way that government operates is cyclical, and I am certain that we will have additional resources when the time comes due.

Senator Francis: Minister, it is deeply concerning that the committee lacks the independent Indigenous representation to hold the federal government accountable for its disclosure obligations. Again, will you commit to taking immediate action to ensure it resumes its critical work and to provide a transparent public update before year-end?

Mr. Anandasangaree: Senator, I will undertake to advocate for additional resources in the next fiscal year, but I do want to confirm that resources are available, and I do encourage the work to continue until March 31. My undertaking is to make sure that I advocate for additional funding for next year.