"[13] The federal budget assigned in 2019 $33.8 million over 3 years to develop and maintain the National Residential School Student Death Register, formally opened in September 2020 with an initial list of 2,800 names.

[10] The search was planned two years earlier, but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic; it eventually started on May 31, 2021[17] and was expanded four times after anecdotes from elders that bodies had been buried past the school grounds.

[17] However, because this site is also known to contain the remains of band members and people from outside the community,[19] the proportion of the 751 recorded hits that could relate to the residential school is unknown at this time.

[6][21] On October 8, 2021, Cowessess announced that they had identified 300 of the 751 likely gravesites after consulting the records of the RCMP, the Catholic Church, and Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, as well as community members' oral stories.

[5] Premier of Ontario Doug Ford tweeted "My heart aches for Indigenous communities with news of more unmarked grave sites and hundreds more children who never returned home.

They were called Indian residential schools.”[24] Donald Bolen, archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Regina, apologized for the church's actions and said they would help provide information.

In response, Marion Buller, chief commissioner for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, dismissed Trudeau's words as "thoughts and prayers" and asked for "concrete action" instead.

New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh asked the federal government to implement all 94 recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

[26] In the wake of the Marieval and Kamloops discoveries, various communities in British Columbia, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Nunavut have decided to cancel Canada Day celebrations for 2021, opting instead for subdued events or time for reflection.

[30] In the days following the discovery, the St. Paul Co-Cathedral in Saskatoon was covered in graffiti, consisting of the words "we were children" surrounded by red handprints and fake blood smears.

[32][33] The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the Catholic organization that operated this school, along with 48 others, announced shortly after the findings that they would disclose all historical documents in its possession.