Appendix 2: Canada’s Residential Schools
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The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) provides the most 
comprehensive listing of Canadian residential schools for Aboriginal people. At 
the time of approval, the Settlement Agreement listed 130 residential schools 
and residences. The Settlement Agreement also outlined a process by which 
additional schools could be added to the list of approved institutions. At the 
time of writing, nine institutions had been added to the list.^1

The IRSSA list of approved schools has a number of limits.

- It was developed in the early twenty-first century as part of a process 
through which individuals were compensated for their experiences at residential 
schools that they attended. Therefore, the list did not include schools that 
closed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

- The original list did not include the dates of operation for the schools. Due 
to limitations in the records, there are difficulties in determining opening and 
closing dates. Some schools, for example, might informally open when a 
missionary began boarding one or more students in his home. Continuity in the 
operation of schools could be interrupted. For example, schools that burned down 
might not reopen for several years. The precise date of closure might be 
difficult to pinpoint: the Blue Quills school, for example, is still in 
operation as a post-secondary educational facility.

- There were several anomalies in the list. The Methodist school at Red Deer, 
Alberta, which closed in 1919, and the Methodist school in Edmonton, which 
opened in 1924, are listed as one school. Similarly, the Anglican school at The 
Pas, Manitoba, which closed in 1933, and the Anglican school in Dauphin, 
Manitoba, which opened in 1957, are listed as one school (in part because both 
were known as the “McKay school”). There are separate listings for Roman 
Catholic schools at Fort Pelly and Kamsack, Saskatchewan, although these appear 
to refer to the same institution.^2

- It was not uncommon for schools to be known by a variety of names: one might 
relate to its geographic name, one might refer to a Christian saint, and another 
might refer to the region in which the school was located. The industrial school 
at Lebret, for example, was referred to as the “Lebret school,” the “Qu’Appelle 
school,” and the “St. Paul’s school”—all at the same time. It later became known 
as the “Whitecalf school.” There is also duplication in names: there were three 
St. Marys, four St. Pauls, and at least eight St. Josephs.

- The question of religious affiliation is not always straightforward. At first, 
most of the schools were quite clearly the initiatives of Catholic and 
Protestant missionary organizations. That affiliation formally ended in 1969. 
However, for a number of years after that, church-appointed principals remained 
in offices, and the religious denomination that had been previously associated 
with the school continued to provide pastoral care.

- All these issues combine to complicate any attempt to list the schools on the 
Settlement Agreement with their opening and closing dates, location, and 
religious affiliation.

Appendix 2.1 presents the schools listed on the Settlement Agreement by province 
(in alphabetical order). Because of the number of schools with the same name, 
the schools are listed by location. (When more than one school was located in a 
single location, there are multiple entries for that location.) Appendix 2.1 
also addresses the anomalies that appeared in the Settlement Agreement list: 
separate listings have been created for schools that were combined on the 
Settlement Agreement list, such as those at Edmonton and Red Deer. The Kamsack 
and Fort Pelly Roman Catholic schools have been combined, as have the Roman 
Catholic schools at Cross Lake, Norway House, Notre Dame, and Jack River, which 
appear to have been part of a linked administrative structure. Where possible, 
the opening and closing dates are based on archival documents. Where this was 
not possible, secondary sources were consulted. In most cases, the dates 
represent only the opening and closing, and do not reflect periods when the 
school might have been temporarily closed. The Truth and Reconciliation 
Commission of Canada attempted to be as comprehensive as possible. For this 
reason, the dates may not correspond to those used in assessing claims under the 
Common Experience Payment program and the Independent Assessment Process, which 
employ criteria relating to the degree of federal involvement in the operation 
of the facility.

Appendix 2.2 lists residential schools that were funded by Indian Affairs in the 
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but were not included in the 
Settlement Agreement. The information on these schools comes from the Indian 
Affairs annual reports, particularly the table of schools published annually.