Ottawa, Ontario - Unceded Traditional Territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Nation - Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada
Today, the Honourable Gary Anandasangaree announced an additional $740,000 in funding to Long Plain First Nation to determine in greater detail the scope of a search, as described in the Prairie Green Landfill Feasibility Study Report. With this funding, the Long Plain First Nation can collaborate with experts, the owners and operators of the Prairie Green Landfill, provincial, and municipal leadership, and others to examine, in detail the proposed activities - such as personnel training, construction of facilities, equipment procurement, and hazardous, toxic, and biohazardous waste management - that are necessary to launch and conduct any potential search.
In May 2023, the Prairie Green Landfill Feasibility Study Report concluded that a search of the Prairie Green Landfill for the remains of three murdered First Nations women would be complex yet feasible and could be done while ensuring the health and safety of those involved. To that extent, work remains to identify how a search might be conducted, while always remembering the well-being of the families, and how to proceed with this work in a culturally sensitive and trauma-informed way.
We acknowledge that families, leadership, many communities, organizations, and people across the country have asked the federal and provincial governments to search the Prairie Green Landfill. Violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQI+ people is an ongoing crisis that needs to be addressed with the utmost urgency. Canada believes that supporting survivors, victims, their families, and communities, is always the right course of action to take, and it requires the full support of all levels of government.
