Status of Women committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. It's a pleasure to be here on behalf of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. I am joined today by my colleague Romy Bowers. We appreciate the opportunity to meet with the committee and support your study of the challenges facing senior women in Canada.

Status of Women committee  In the intake process, there are the different priority clientele groups that need to be identified, and if you identify yourself as serving one of those priority groups, it moves you up in the prioritization, given that we're serving the most vulnerable populations. We're able to identify in each intake process how many of the folks are identifying as serving women and girls.

Status of Women committee  All of the construction is due to be completed by March 31 of next year, so within the fiscal year. My understanding is that construction is going quite well on those projects.

Status of Women committee  In the context of the distinction-based strategies being worked on, I think that's a question that would be entertained within that, as the government works with indigenous communities to develop the overall housing strategies.

Status of Women committee  Yes. It was just after I was born. Absolutely, I think CMHC has adapted according to the policies of the country at any given time, and we're always ready to work on new things should the government decide we need to work on them. For example, the national housing strategy has chosen community housing.

Status of Women committee  I do know the history. Whenever a group of people come home from war, you need to do something to house them. I think we need to produce more supply across the spectrum, because different people make different choices. My family is moving out, and I don't know if my children will ever want to own a home.

Status of Women committee  Absolutely.

Status of Women committee  We work with the bands to ensure that housing is built to part 9 of the building code or a similar code, depending on where the reserve is. We do ongoing inspections, so that when we're finished our part of construction it is up to the building code. The local housing authorities make the decision as to who goes into the housing, depending on the need in the community and local circumstances.

Status of Women committee  It would be similar to a seniors' housing project that would be built in Ottawa. The group would determine who goes into that building. In the national housing strategy, indigenous communities are a priority group. If a group built on reserve, we would work with them. If they built a seniors' complex, which seniors would get into the housing would be a local decision.

Status of Women committee  Yes, absolutely.

Status of Women committee  Accessibility in the national housing strategy is a priority. It would be the community groups building or renovating the units who would decide what the community demand was. There would be no issue whatsoever with them renovating or building for accessibility. Those things would definitely be encouraged.

Status of Women committee  The shelter enhancement program is for on reserve. We have staff who work with first nations across the country. They're talking with the folks about whether or not they want to invest in the shelters at any given time. There's an annual application process as we receive our budgets.

Status of Women committee  I don't know all 41. We've been at it for a number of....

Status of Women committee  Yes, we fund both on and off reserve. We spoke about the five that had been funded in the last two years. In the previous 10 years we've funded some renovation, and those are new construction. We've done some renovation and new construction in the previous number of years. We did about 317 units—beds—off reserve.

Status of Women committee  The results are the key. They are available right across the country, from rural and urban regions and from the north, and we have analyzed them. We noted differences in rural regions.