ManitobaThe National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation says a $20 million donation from the province is bringing them “closer than ever” to gather the funding needed to build a permanent facility to amplify the stories of residential school survivors and house Canada’s most complete repository on their testimonies.Manitoba gives $20M to fund new building to house residential schools recordsCBC News · Posted: Sep 12, 2025 6:20 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours agoThe provincial government is donating $20 million to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation for the construction of a permanent facility at the University of Manitoba. (Maggie Wilcox/Radio-Canada)The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation says a donation from the province is bringing them “closer than ever” to gather the funding needed to build a permanent facility to amplify the stories of residential school survivors and house Canada’s most complete repository on their testimonies.”We need to make sure that the next generation understands it not just as a history lesson … so that the true lesson that every child matters will be transmitted to the future generations,” Premier Wab Kinew said at a NCTR funding announcement on Friday. “That is the true history of our country. That is not some distant past.”The provincial government is providing $20 million that will be used for the construction of a permanent facility for the centre, a decade after it was established to share the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Canada’s residential school system. Premier Wab Kinew says funding for the centre is important to ensure the generations to come don’t forget the harms of residential schools. (Prabhjot Singh/CBC)NCTR has been operating out of a temporary facility in the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg since 2015. In recent years funding, including $60 million from the federal government in 2022, has been allocated and donated to build a permanent house for the centre. But last year the NCTR said it needed about $35 million more to build the facility. An NCTR spokesperson told CBC News the donation brings the centre “closer than ever to our vision” putting them at 90 per cent of our fundraising goal for the facility. The permanent facility will be located on the former Southwood Golf and Country Club grounds at the U of M’s Fort Garry campus.It will feature exhibits, indoor and outdoor ceremonial spaces, as well as a place for educational programming and research, the province said in a news release.Niigaan Sinclair, son of former senator, judge and lawyer Murray Sinclair, said the funding announcement shows progress toward the truth, reconciliation and the visions survivors had of creating a place for their stories to live on. “[It goes] all the way back to the many who fought so hard to have the settlement agreement in 2006, the apology in 2008, and the beginning of the process of the Truth Reconciliation Commission from 2009 to 2015,” he said. “It is the survivors who demanded, called upon, and then asked and gave us the opportunity to be here for today.” The centre’s permanent facility will be located on the former Southwood Golf and Country Club grounds at the University of Manitoba’s Fort Garry campus. (Maggie Wilcox/Radio-Canada)Stephanie Scott, NCTR’s executive director, said the new building will help preserve millions of documents on residential schools, including statements from survivors, under one roof and become a learning lodge on residential schools.Survivors fought for those stories to be known. But some still today try to strike their memories from the public record — denying the documented evidence of the harms and abuse they endured, Scott said, raising the importance of a project like this. “The racism and hatred that fuelled the residential school system has not gone away,” she said. “This is why it is so important that we continue to stand with survivors and that we will continue to amplify their truths.”The centre is still expecting to open the doors of its permanent building in 2029, the NCTR spokesperson said on Friday.With files from Santiago Arias Orozco
Permanent facility for National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation ‘closer than ever’
