Calgary's permanent residential school memorial designs to be released in March

The City of Calgary has opened applications to design its permanent residential school memorial and the winning plan will be chosen in mid-2025.

For three years, a makeshift memorial of shoes, toys and messages has lived on the steps of city hall to serve as a reminder of the horrors of residential schools and the children who didn't come home.

"I couldn't even imagine. I could hear their voices, I could hear the abuse. And they were helpless children. And throughout their lives, they created sanctuary in our communities," said Marina Crane, an Indigenous Elder from Tsuut'ina.

In what was a unique council meeting, the entire agenda for Monday centred around updates on Indigenous projects and the city's work toward truth and reconciliation.

The city plans to move the memorial from city hall to an area nearly 10,000 square metres at The Confluence, formerly known as Fort Calgary.

"We sought to understand in their minds what the image of an Indian residential school memorial or monument would look like," said Harry Horsefall, co-project lead for the memorial and a member of Calgary's Indigenous Relations Office.

Five teams will be shortlisted next month and then potential designs for the permanent memorial will be made public in March.

A jury will choose the winning design in the second quarter of 2025.

Once the design is selected, the project area will undergo a 10-month Historical Resources Impact Assessment in order to look for any possible Indigenous artifacts.

"There could be many Indigenous items -- Blackfoot, Tsuut'ina, Stoney Nakoda and Métis items -- that would be under there." Horsefall said.

Construction isn't expected to begin until late 2025 or early 2026.

So far, the city has committed $1 million toward a permanent memorial, while The Confluence has matched that amount.

All of the city's work is being guided by its Indigenous Relations Office and Indigenous Elders themselves.