Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Committee on May 28th, 2008
Evidence of meeting #30 for Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was housing.
A recording is available from Parliament.
On the agenda
MPs speaking
Also speaking
- Sharon Matthews Vice-President, Assisted Housing Sector, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
- Christine Cram Acting Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Socio-Economic Policy and Regional Operations, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
- Gina Wilson Assistant Deputy Minister, Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada
May 28th, 2008 / 4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Churchill, MB
I have a quick question. It has to do with the off-reserve housing funding and whether there's any accounting for that money. I know there was the $300 million announced, and I have yet to get a response on whether that money is being allocated for use by aboriginal people in housing.
4:05 p.m.
Vice-President, Assisted Housing Sector, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
You may be referring to the trust funding that--
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
4:05 p.m.
Acting Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Socio-Economic Policy and Regional Operations, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
I think you're referring to the $300 million in the 2006 budget that went out to provinces. So the money did go out to the provinces, and I can--
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Churchill, MB
I know it went out, but I'm wondering how it is you monitor whether it is actually being used for housing and how we can find that information.
4:05 p.m.
Acting Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Socio-Economic Policy and Regional Operations, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
We do have some information. I do have a bit of information on different provinces, in terms of what they've done. Different provinces have handled it differently.
I'll just give you British Columbia as an example. They received $50.9 million, and they transferred it to an off-reserve aboriginal housing trust. On March 1, 2007, they issued a province-wide expression of interest to aboriginal non-profit societies for applications.
So each province has had a different process. I don't personally have the information on all of them, but--
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Churchill, MB
If I can't get it from the province and I can't get it from them, can I just try to get that from your department?
4:05 p.m.
Acting Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Socio-Economic Policy and Regional Operations, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
I'd be prepared to go back. I think we'd have to go to the Department of Finance--
4:05 p.m.
Vice-President, Assisted Housing Sector, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
Wasn't it the Department of Finance who was managing the trust?
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Churchill, MB
From your department, there's no actual monitoring or criteria in terms of accounting for that?
4:10 p.m.
Vice-President, Assisted Housing Sector, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
There's no mandate for CMHC to be monitoring or managing those funds. I believe the same can be said for INAC, so it would be the Department of Finance that you'd have to raise the question with.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Churchill, MB
The Department of Finance would be accountable for that funding. They would require accounting for that funding.
4:10 p.m.
Acting Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Socio-Economic Policy and Regional Operations, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
I suspect that for the trusts that were set up for the transfer of the money from the Department of Finance to those provinces, they would have specified any accountability requirements.
4:10 p.m.
Vice-President, Assisted Housing Sector, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
I do believe there were some principles and whatnot, but we're just not the right people to answer that question, I'm afraid.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
