MMIW inquiry’s budget set to swell beyond $90 million
Ottawa poised to approve another $38M injection
• The federal government is planning to award another $38 million into the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women, bringing its total budget to $92 million.
The new money, included in the fall supplementary estimates, comes after Ottawa granted the inquiry a six-month extension in June. The inquiry’s commissioners had originally asked for a two-year extension and $50 million beyond their original $53-million budget.
The inquiry says the money will cover operating costs for the additional six months as well as unforeseen expenses, including translation, IT requirements and aftercare for those who have spoken at the hearings.
“The (systemic) causes of violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people are rooted in 500 years of colonization,” a spokesperson said in an email. “Time and investment are required for a thoughtful and thorough examination into the underlying reasons for this national tragedy.”
The Privy Council Office (PCO) has allocated nearly $47 million for the inquiry in the supplementary estimates. An official with the PCO told a Commons committee last week that the figure includes about $38 million in new funding, while the rest is left over from the original $53 million.
“The total amount now is $92 million between the original money and this new money that’s been brought in,” said Matthew Shea, the PCO’s chief financial officer. The new funding was first reported by Ottawa political publication Blacklock’s Reporter.
Asked how the PCO will ensure that the budget is well spent, Shea said the office’s role is largely administrative.
“We operate at arm’s length with the commission of inquiry. We provide them support. They’re absolutely independent,” he said. “We are not there to decide if this is a good expenditure or a bad expenditure or the best return on investment. … We’re very, very focused on ensuring they have independence.” The inquiry has faced criticism for disorganization and poor communication almost since its inception in September 2016. Its commissioners have laid some of the blame for slow progress at the government’s feet, saying they were hampered by delays in opening offices and hiring staff.
Their request in March for a two-year extension received a mixed reaction from Indigenous organizations, some of which felt the inquiry needed to wrap up quickly. In the end, CrownIndigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett compromised and gave the inquiry until Apr. 30, 2019, to submit its final report, a sixmonth extension beyond the original Nov. 1 deadline.
“We found support for giving the inquiry more time to submit its final report, but little support for the commission’s mandate to extend beyond the next election,” she said in June.
At the time, the government didn’t say how much new money the inquiry would receive, waiting for the commissioners to submit a formal request. The inquiry submitted a work plan in July seeking an additional $38 million, a PCO spokesperson told the Post by email.
The new money is meant to help the inquiry accelerate its work ahead of the April deadline, a government official told the Post, so it isn’t surprising that the inquiry should be getting $38 million for just a six-month extension, when it had asked for $50 million for two years.
“We recognize that this is a tight time scale,” the official said. “Twenty-five per cent of the time does not mean 25 per cent of the budget.”
The national inquiry has held 15 community hearings, and heard from 1,273 survivors and family members of missing and murdered Indigenous women.
Since the summer, it has also held several institutional and expert hearings, focused on policing, child welfare and other systemic issues.
But chief commissioner Marion Buller has repeatedly criticized the government’s response to the inquiry’s work, including the decision not to grant a two-year extension.
“Do we have enough time? No,” she said during a hearing in St. John’s, N.L. last month.
“But we’ll make do.”