The Anglican Church of Canada, one of the churches that paid into a residential school compensation fund, will be getting about $10 million back from Ottawa, CBC News has learned.

Thousands of aboriginal people who were forced to attend the schools said they were victims of physical and sexual abuse. They sued the federal government and the church, which ran the schools on behalf of the government.

Several years ago, the Anglicans agreed to pay a percentage of damages related to their schools, to a maximum of $25 million.

"One of the terms of our first agreement was that if another church negotiated a better agreement, we would be able to get an equal, although not perhaps identical, benefit," said Ellie Johnson, a spokeswoman from the church's national office.
 
As it turns out, the Roman Catholic organizations did work out a financial arrangement that was better. As a result, the Anglicans will get a refund of around $10 million.

"We will be getting a refund from the government for those overpayments," Johnson said.

The flow of money will take several routes. Some of it will be returned to local churches, while some will go into an Anglican healing fund dedicated to programs for survivors.

Under a recently approved "common experience" settlement that's separate from the compensation for sexual and physical abuse, Ottawa is to pay about $2 billion to about 78,000 people who attended the schools.