Committee
Consult the user guide
For assistance, please contact us
Consult the user guide
For assistance, please contact us
Add search criteria
Results: 1 - 15 of 18
View Brad Vis Profile
CPC (BC)
You mentioned earlier the challenges that band members had in accessing housing off reserve. Generally, where do band members from Sts'ailes go when they're not living on your traditional territory? What are some of the first-hand challenges you've heard about?
Ralph Leon Jr.
View Ralph Leon Jr. Profile
Ralph Leon Jr.
2020-12-03 18:15
Right now we know of a lot of our people being in Chilliwack and Abbotsford, and a lot of our people live as far away as California or England. They're just everywhere. Wherever a job is created, a lot of them go there. There's no opportunity here; then they'll go elsewhere.
Juliette Nicolet
View Juliette Nicolet Profile
Juliette Nicolet
2020-11-19 15:38
Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
I am in Toronto, and I would like to acknowledge that Toronto sits on the traditional territories of a number of different first nations who shared this area for all sorts of reasons. My house in particular sits very close to a former Seneca encampment.
I want to thank Ms. Camille, because she gave an excellent description of the work of friendship centres in so many communities across Canada. Her experience is reflected in Ontario.
With respect to the range of services provided and the challenges around housing, in Ontario we have a demographic situation that is slightly different from other provinces. For example, 85.5% of indigenous people in Ontario live off reserve. Ontario has the largest population and the largest proportion of indigenous people living off reserve. Many seek housing and experience extreme housing insecurity. Of course, COVID-19 has made that worse.
The friendship centres in Ontario and the OFIFC have really been at the front line of providing housing for a number of years and have seen that activity increase in the last six to eight months. Friendship centres directly provide 151 units of housing. There are 29 friendship centres across Ontario that directly deliver 151 units of housing. That number is increasing all the time. This is a relatively new development because the need is so great. The friendship centres have actually begun delivering housing directly themselves.
The OFIFC is also one of three shareholders in a housing non-profit, the Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services Corporation, which owns upwards of 2,400 individual units that are supplied in a variety of ways, with preference to indigenous clients.
I think the critical thing to understand is that the success of friendship centres in Ontario in creating a real kind of economic, social and civic shift in the indigenous community relies very much on the provision of culture-based services. When the national housing strategy came out, it was a great disappointment to us that there was no specific indigenous set-aside. This would have created space for culture-based services in housing and self-determination in housing by organizations such as ourselves and others to address the issue of housing in this country. Of course, COVID has come along and has demonstrated just how dire the situation is, so here we are.
It's important as well to understand what “indigenous-led” means. When we talk about things being indigenous-led, we're talking about things being governed by indigenous people, managed by indigenous people, administered by indigenous people, delivered on the ground by indigenous people, research done by indigenous people and evaluated by indigenous people. This approach has led to the great success of the friendship centre movement across Canada, and certainly in Ontario.
With respect to what the OFIFC would like to see, which is the development of a national strategy on urban, rural and northern indigenous housing, it is also important to understand how this might intersect with enabling legislation on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and that the self-determination aspect is a critical piece to ensure that service providers with the greatest expertise are able to continue to do their work.
I'm going to leave it at that for now.
Thank you very much.
View Leah Gazan Profile
NDP (MB)
Thank you, Chair.
My first question is for Madame Nicolet. You indicated briefly in response to the questions from Madame Chabot how friendship centres support urban indigenous people in securing safe and affordable housing. I concur. I think the funding amount is grossly inadequate.
I know that your organization has done a lot of advocacy on prioritizing an urban indigenous housing strategy as a way to end homelessness and housing insecurity. In fact, you're quoted as saying, “The absence of any reference to urban indigenous communities in the national housing strategy constitutes a barrier to ensuring [that] the needs of urban indigenous people are rendered visible across government.”
Can you expand a bit on that, briefly? I have a few questions and limited time.
Juliette Nicolet
View Juliette Nicolet Profile
Juliette Nicolet
2020-11-19 16:02
I'll try to be brief.
That comment needs to be put in the context of the three-streams approach that the federal government takes as an approach to all indigenous things. Three streams—FNMI, or “distinctions-based”, however you want to call it—necessarily elides the existence of urban indigenous communities in engaging exclusively, at an official or formal level, or quasi-exclusively with only the “representative” organizations.
Juliette Nicolet
View Juliette Nicolet Profile
Juliette Nicolet
2020-11-19 16:04
It becomes very difficult for urban indigenous concerns and legitimate demands to be advanced from a policy perspective and then to actually get any kind of traction around implementation. The fact that it doesn't get mentioned is a continuation of the erasure of urban indigenous realities across Canada.
Does that answer your question?
View Leah Gazan Profile
NDP (MB)
Yes, that's perfect.
Thank you so much. I wish I had a lot of time, and unfortunately I don't.
Madam Camille, since the announcement of the national housing strategy in 2017, the federal government has promised an urban, rural and northern housing strategy. However, there still is no strategy. In my riding, 70% of individuals experiencing homelessness are indigenous and over half were in child welfare.
Given that those experiencing homelessness are mostly indigenous, why do you think the government keeps failing to prioritize the human right of housing for indigenous people?
Carol Camille
View Carol Camille Profile
Carol Camille
2020-11-19 16:04
I believe that concerns the ownership and responsibility of having to deal with our past and bringing it forward. Housing is central to healing from the traumas of the past. I think that once that acknowledgement is out there and we start working on it, there is an opportunity for things to change.
There is never enough money to put into it, especially when it comes to healing. Healing is the very depth of what is needed to answer some of the housing questions of all our indigenous communities and organizations.
It's really challenging when the housing project comes out and there is no strategy for it. Indigenous housing needs to be—and I've heard it said here already today—indigenous-led, indigenous-run and indigenous-operated for indigenous people, because that is where we will get most of our answers.
I hope that answers your question.
View Louise Chabot Profile
BQ (QC)
Thank you.
You mentioned the migration of members living off-reserve, which accounts for 20% of the need.
What problems or challenges does this cause?
Lance Haymond
View Lance Haymond Profile
Lance Haymond
2020-11-19 17:15
Well, it causes an increased demand in a community that already has huge housing needs internally. With the young demographics that we have, we see new family formations happening quite quickly, so the demand inside the community is already large. When members want to come back and live in communities, normally they get put on a waiting list, and they will wait in some instances for years—
Lance Haymond
View Lance Haymond Profile
Lance Haymond
2020-11-19 17:16
—unless they have the financial ability to move in the direction of home ownership, which is also an important aspect. Housing is not just social housing. We need to have a spectrum of housing that meets the various realities of communities.
In some communities close to urban centres, you will see that the vast majority of their stock is home ownership, but the further you get away from those urban centres, the more reliance and dependence on social housing increases; it's proportional to the distance away from major centres.
Often people leave because of poor housing situations, but after a while living in the city—as Madam Hache mentioned, with the inherent risks that come with moving to cities—these people want to come back to their home community for culture, for safety, and just for the reality of.... Do you know what? As an indigenous person, it's hard to live in a city after you've spent the majority of your life living in a first nation community.
View Adam Vaughan Profile
Lib. (ON)
Right.
In terms of your building projects, have you ever built housing outside of your reserve?
Lance Haymond
View Lance Haymond Profile
Lance Haymond
2020-11-19 17:30
We have not. No.
View Adam Vaughan Profile
Lib. (ON)
Not in Montreal or in Val-d'Or nearby, say, or in any of the regional centres?
Lance Haymond
View Lance Haymond Profile
Lance Haymond
2020-11-19 17:30
No. Again, it's mainly because the financial resources are not enough for us to deal with on reserve—
Results: 1 - 15 of 18 | Page: 1 of 2

1
2
>
>|
Export As: XML CSV RSS

For more data options, please see Open Data