NWT bill could be model for repatriation of residential school children

The National Indian Residential School Crisis Line can be reached 24 hours a day by calling 1-866-925-4419.

An NWT MLA is proposing legislation that he says could be Canada’s first legal framework for identifying and repatriating the remains of children who never returned home from residential school.

Tu Nedhé-Wiilideh MLA Richard Edjericon tabled Bill 62: The Residential School Remains Identification and Repatriation Act in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.

The private member’s bill passed second reading on Thursday with all nine regular MLAs voting in favour and cabinet members abstaining. The bill will now head to a legislative committee for study.

“I stand here as a residential school and federal day school survivor – in the halls of the Legislative Assembly, that represents the very same system of government that once took control of our destiny away from us – to bring forward landmark legislation,” Edjericon told the legislature.

He said his bill “restores dignity to the children we lost and gives families the choice to bring their loved ones home, and hopefully heal some of the intergenerational trauma that persists across the North.”

Bill 62 asserts an aim to “provide the most just, speedy and inexpensive means for families to identify and repatriate residential school remains.”

The proposed legislation would allow families to apply to the NWT’s chief public health officer for genetic testing of remains at residential school burial sites, as well as repatriation of those remains. The bill sets out rules for identifying the sites of residential school remains, the use of genetic samples, and the disinterment, handling, transportation and reinterment of remains.

Edjericon said if passed, the bill would formalize an approach that has been used to identify and return to families the remains of children buried at the St Joseph’s Mission School site in Fort Resolution.

‘Our children are not artifacts’

Deninu Kųę́ First Nation has been investigating missing children and unmarked burials associated with that residential school since 2022.

Early last year, Chief Louis Balsillie raised concerns that those burial sites are deemed archaeological sites under current territorial legislation and the First Nation had been told to acquire an archaeology permit to exhume remains.

“Our children are not artifacts,” he wrote in a letter to the premier.

Edjericon subsequently raised the issue in the Legislative Assembly and advocated for the NWT government to support the First Nation’s efforts.

Since then, Edjericon said, the premier and ministers have worked to facilitate a process under the NWT’s Public Health Act to help return children to their home communities.

Alma Beaulieu, who passed away when she was five years old while attending residential school in the 1940s, was the first child to be returned to her family in Fort Smith in October 2025, fulfilling a promise her sister had made to their mother.

“Alma is really the reason for this legislation,” said Linda Vanden Berg, an anthropologist and ethnohistorian who has been leading the team working on the Deninu Kųę́ First Nation’s efforts to repatriate children.

Edjericon said he refers to Bill 62 as “Alma’s law.”

Model for other jurisdictions

In total, Vanden Berg said, the remains of seven children have been repatriated from Fort Resolution to their home communities of Fort Smith, Łútsël K’é, Behchokǫ̀ and Yellowknife. She said five more children have since been identified who will be repatriated next year.

Vanden Berg said Deninu Kųę́ First Nation has collected 50 to 60 cheek swabs for genetic testing. Edjericon said he is among people who provided a DNA sample as he has family buried in Fort Resolution.

Previously, Vanden Berg said, there was no process to return the remains of children from residential school sites in the NWT, nor a model to follow that has been implemented elsewhere in Canada.

“No one else has repatriated children to their home communities,” she said.

Premier RJ Simpson similarly told the legislature the return of Alma to her family was the first time remains from a residential school burial site had been repatriated in Canada.

Vanden Berg said if passed, Bill 62 would ensure an official process remains in place beyond the current Legislative Assembly so more families can identify and relocate their loved ones. She added it could be a model for other jurisdictions.

“This is a huge step forward for honouring the children who passed away at residential schools in Canada,” she said.

Edjericon said there are 72 unmarked burials in Fort Resolution and around 12 sites where children who attended residential school are buried across the NWT. He said allowing families to bring their loved ones home will have “a huge impact” and support healing and reconciliation.

“This is only the beginning,” he told Cabin Radio. “This just opens the doors so that we are able to make it easier for families who want to bring their children home.”

‘There’s a lot of work to be done’

In the legislature on Thursday, Premier Simpson said there is now a legal process in place – informed by legislation – that has been successfully used to repatriate children.

The NWT Archaeological Sites Act does not apply to cemeteries, he said, but does currently apply to children who are buried elsewhere. He said his government has been working with Indigenous governments to co-develop a new Heritage Resources Act to address that issue.

Simpson said while he supports Bill 62 in principle, he is concerned that the proposed legislation is silent on consultation requirements and does not address commitments in modern treaties related to cultural artifacts.

The premier further said the bill would remove the requirement for individuals with credentials to be part of processes such as the collection of DNA samples. He said such requirements have been put in place to protect the interests of Indigenous people and communities, who have traditionally been the subjects rather than the leaders of scientific research.

“My concern is that once we remove the protections that protect the people, and the families, and the people who have been lost, we could see individuals or companies coming up here who don’t take as much care as they should with what they do,” he said.

Simpson added there is no enforcement provision in the bill if people “do something they’re not supposed to do.” If they are not regulated by a professional body, he said, there would also be no consequences for them professionally.

“This bill, it needs some work. I look forward to it going through the committee process,” he said.

“There is work to be done, there is a ways to go, but I’m happy to work through the process and hopefully, ideally, we come out the other end with a bill that will protect families, will protect communities and will accomplish what it needs to accomplish.”

Bills must pass three readings in the legislature and receive royal assent before they become law.