The President of the Saskatchewan Mining Association launched Mining Week by recognizing and paying tribute to the 215 children whose bodies were discovered in unmarked graves at a former residential school in Kamloops. Pam Schwan says, “We know that in Saskatchewan and across Canada there are burial sites and unmarked graves of Indigenous children related to residential schools, including the residential school cemetery associated with the Regina Indian Industrial School. We recognize these travesties and honour all the children who never went home, and their families who continue to grieve for them.”

In lieu of speaker gifts and the lunches that would have been supplied had it not been a virtual week of events, the Mining Association is making a donation to support recommendations 71 to 76 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action related to the deaths of Indigenous children in the care of residential school authorities.

Energy and Resources Minister, Bronwyn Eyre, called the discovery of the remains the beginning of what will no doubt be a very sad reckoning.