Liberal MP Buckley Belanger speaks with residents of Île-à-la-Crosse earlier this week. (Image Credit: Facebook/Buckley Belanger MP)

By Derek Cornet

compensation

Federal settlement reached for Île-à-la-Crosse Residential School survivors

Jan 30, 2026 | 3:47 PM

An agreement in the class action lawsuit between Île-à-la-Crosse Residential School survivors and the federal government has been reached.  

On Thursday, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River MP Buckley Belanger was in the community to make the announcement. It calls for compensation of up to $10,000 for less than five years of attendance and up to $15,000 for five or more years.  

Under the agreement, an independent, court-appointed third-party administrator will decide the compensation for attendance at the residential school. 

In addition, Canada has also agreed to provide $10 million to support healing, wellness, protection of languages, education, and commemoration for former students and their families. 

“I am quite pleased that things are moving forward, and as a survivor, I just tell people to manage this opportunity very well,” Belanger said.

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“I have great confidence through the courts that we can appoint a great adjudication team and also a good management firm to make sure that the focus on the survivors will remain a top priority of everyone engaged in this process.”

Île-à-la-Crosse Residential School operated from the 1860s until the 1970s, and the students who attended were mostly from Métis communities and First Nations in Northern Saskatchewan. Belanger himself attended the school when he was five years old. 

“It was really a surreal moment for me yesterday,” he remarked. 

“The only really vivid memory I have of that experience is standing on a snowbank at the edge of a skating rink because the residential school had the boys skating steady and playing hockey was pretty popular at that time, I guess. Standing on the snowbank watching them practice hockey, there was my younger brother there and my older brother. There were three of us there and then you fast forward 60 years later and I am making the announcement of settlement for the very school I attended and that’s why it was pretty dramatic at the end of the day.” 

A judicial review will now be launched to ensure the settlement is fair, reasonable, and in the best interests of the former students and their family members.  

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com