Permanent Indian Residential School memorial in Calgary on time, budget

A permanent memorial in Calgary honouring the children who didn’t return home from residential schools and those who continue to feel the effects of that trauma will be completed by this time next year.

A report set to go before city council Monday, says the Indian Residential School memorial project is currently on time and on budget.

The project has been in the works since 2021, following the discovery of 215 anomalies at the site of the Kamloops Residential School in B.C. Immediately following that news, a temporary design was made by Indigenous communities across the city at Calgary’s Municipal Building.

READ MORE: Calgary moves closer to permanent residential school memorial

At the time, council approved a $1,000,000 budget to create a permanent memorial as a move toward Call to Action #82 in its White Goose Flying report.

The city says its intention is to provide a safe place for people to come to pay respects, remember the dark times in Canadian history, and create a reconciliatory environment.

Last September, it was announced the memorial would be built at The Confluence (formerly Fort Calgary) on 2.3 acres in the northeast corner by the community garden.

The city is going through a two-stage procurement process to find a qualified design team for the project.

The first stage, Request For Pre-Qualifications (RFPQ) started on Sept. 16. Five shortlisted teams will be announced by the end of October.

Those five teams will then submit their design proposals through a Request for Proposals (RFP) in November before they are presented to the Indigenous community.

The final project will be chosen by a jury and made public in March 2025.

City officials say there has been engagement with the Indigenous community throughout the process and that will continue through a Historical Resource Impact Assessment (HRIA), economic and environmental reconciliation, and a blessing of the ground ahead of the site’s opening.