Canada Life gives $2M for new National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation

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This article was published 15/04/2025 (195 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The fundraising campaign for a new home for the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation has reached roughly 80 per cent of its $40-million goal, following a $2-million donation from Canada Life and its parent company, Power Corp. of Canada.

“This is about the money, but not just about the money,” said Paul Mahon, president and CEO of Canada Life, at a ceremony at the insurance company’s headquarters on Osborne Street Tuesday.

“Our country still reckons with the truth of the past. The residential school system caused immeasurable harm to children, families, communities and generations. Truth cannot, and must not, be forgotten.”

The new centre will be built on two acres of land near the Red River on the University of Manitoba campus. The centre, which was established in 2015, continues the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It is home to statements, records, and historical material shared by residential school survivors, their families, and communities.

The ceremony included the unfurling of a 50-metre red cloth bearing the names of 4,000 children who died in the system — part of the estimated 150,000 Indigenous children who were forced to attend residential schools.

“Our promise is to keep listening, keep learning and keep showing up, not just with words but with action,” Mahon said.

Stephanie Scott, the executive director of the centre who is a Sixties Scoop survivor and whose mother attended residential school, said the new facility fulfils a vision held by many survivors from the beginning.

“It will be an incredible, world-class institution and healing lodge for those to come and learn about Canada.”– Stephanie Scott, the executive director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation

“They felt it was essential because they shared their oral histories and statements with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and they really, at that time, wanted to know what was going to happen to their lives and what was going to be preserved,” she said. “How will it be honoured? How will it be protected?”

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“There’s still people in this point in time, today, that don’t really know, and still need to be educated,” she said.

The new centre is intended to be an educational institution and a healing lodge. It will include space for survivors and families to gather, share their stories and reconnect with lost history.

Scott said the request for proposals has been completed and construction is expected to begin in 2026. It is anticipated the doors will open in 2029.

“It will be an incredible, world-class institution and healing lodge for those to come and learn about Canada, and also understand how we unite and how we move forward and continue to reveal the truth and then finally reach reconciliation,” she said.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca

Scott Billeck
Reporter

Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade’s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.  Read more about Scott.

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