Deadlines approach for residential school compensation

An anticipated surplus in money set aside to pay claims made through the residential school settlement Common Experience Payment (CEP) will result in personal credits for successful claimants and educational funding for First Nations and Inuit.

Aideen Nabigon, director general of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), said terms and conditions for the educational use of the surplus funding are under development.

He was speaking to a group of chiefs and residential and day school survivors on Dec. 13. Discussions about the surplus are taking place with representatives from the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit, the National Consortium, the Merchant Law Group, and independent counsels.
“(The group) will be providing a plan for implementing these personal credits to the courts by the spring of 2011,” said Nabigon.

The IRSSA stipulates the use of surplus dollars in the CEP fund after all claims are paid out.

If the balance is more than $40 million, every successful CEP claimant is eligible for personal credits tagged as an education grant of $3,000, which may be transferred to a family member.

If the balance is less than $40 million, the funding will be transferred to the National Indian Brotherhood Trust and Inuvialuit Education Trust Fund to be used for education programs.

The CEP fund was established at $1.9 billion for an anticipated 110,000 applications. As of November 2010, 100,644 applications had been received, said INAC’s Assistant Deputy Minister Elisabeth Chatillon, in charge of administration and implementation of the IRSSA.

Of those, 97 per cent have been processed and of those, close to 96 per cent were deemed eligible and received full or partial payment.

To date, $1.577 billion has been paid out.

Now that the deadline for CEP is approaching, with the Individual Assessment Payments (IAP) deadline coming a year later, the federal government will be engaging in “aggressive outreach.”

“We’re going to get out into the communities and encourage people to get their applications in as quickly as possible,” said Akivah Starkmen, executive director of the IAP Secretariat.

Deadline to apply for compensation under CEP is Sept. 19, 2011. Second notice plans will go out in January of 2011 for CEP applications. Deadline for IAP comes in September 2012. There will be a similar push final for IAP applications in January 2012.

Notice plans that were distributed in 2006 and 2007 were “extremely successful. We believe they added to the high number of applications received and processed,” said Nabigon.

Nabigon also credited the Assembly of First Nations for taking the information into their communities and reaching the grassroots.

Starkmen said partnerships had to continue if information on pending deadlines was to get out.

“We rely on you to invite us into the communities. We rely on you for advice in terms of how we can best reach potential claimants in a way that helps them understand the process, understand the deadline, and understand the need to come forward,” said Starkmen.

Nationally, about one-quarter of the people who received CEP payments submitted IAP applications. However, in some regions of the country that percentage is as low as six per cent.

“It’s less than 10 per cent, so we’re really trying to focus there. A lot of that is actually in the north and more remote communities. So we are doing a comprehensive outreach program, but are really trying to focus our efforts in some areas where we think it’s most needed,” said Starkmen.

CEP and IAP officials will combine their outreach activities with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
“We want to go into the communities together and provide a comprehensive and supportive environment for people to learn about the IAP and come forward,” said Starkmen.

The IAP process can be a daunting one. While application for CEP compensation is done on paper, the IAP system involves hearings with independent adjudicators.

“Our biggest challenge is to make sure that (re-victimization) does not happen. To make sure that people who come into the IAP process are supported. This is not an easy thing to do, but we want to make sure the supports are there,” said Starkmen.

Chatillon said Indian Affairs has been “eliminating backlogs and improving timelines. There are no delays in processing CEP currently.”

The same could not have been said this time last year, she said.

CEP applications that go through the reconsideration process are, if successful, being paid out in 39 days, compared to the previous 90 days, and those that are appealed to the National Administration Committee are, if successful, paid out in 20 days.