CBC – A Roman Catholic Church document claiming the church provided $25 million of “in-kind services” to residential school survivors is sitting inside a Regina courthouse, but officials are refusing to release it. The document is said to outline “in-kind services” that the church agreed to provide as part of a deal reached with the federal government to compensate survivors of residential schools in Canada. The Catholic Church, the only party refusing to sign the main agreement, reached a side deal with Ottawa. Dozens of lawyers hired by the 48 Catholic entities eventually signed.

Those entities included various dioceses and archdioceses in Canada and orders of priests and nuns that operated some of the schools. The three other churches that operated schools — United, Anglican and Presbyterian — signed the original deal and paid full compensation years ago without incident.
The Catholic Church made three promises to survivors, totalling $79 million.

• A $29-million cash payment. Most of that appears to have been paid, with the church securing a court order in 2015 that it had to pay only $1.2 million of what was remaining.
• Secondly, the church agreed to give “best efforts” at fundraising $25 million. Less than $4 million of that was paid to survivors. Citing the “best efforts” clause, a Saskatchewan judge absolved the church of further fundraising in that same 2015 case. Following a recent CBC News investigation, church boycott calls and revelations that more than $300 million was devoted during this period to cathedral and church construction, bishops across Canada announced a renewed fundraising campaign to be launched this fall.
• Thirdly, the Catholic Church was allowed to claim the final $25 million as “in-kind services.” The agreement specified that the services should directly benefit survivors and their descendants. Wider community projects could also qualify, but they were not the focus.