Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate this opportunity to share with you what CMHC does in the area of aboriginal housing. I will share some of the successes as well as speak a little bit about where we are headed. As Canada's housing agency, CMHC has a mandate to improve hou

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll just add a little bit to Claire's answer to the question on most urgent needs. Certainly CMHC focuses on three real components. We're very active in capacity development and investment in institutions and training and development for aboriginals to work better work to solv

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm not surprised, in terms of the comment, that some of the privately built housing may be in worse shape than some of the programmed housing that you get in the system. I think that's because, certainly with the specialized programs that CMHC has on-reserve, we make sure that w

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Perhaps I can jump in here. There was $300 million for the north, the territories; there was also $300 million for off-reserve; and then $800 million, for general affordable, went to the provinces and territories.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Money is certainly part of the solution, but I don't believe it's the only part of the solution.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It wasn't actually directed necessarily to aboriginal, but clearly the Inuit make up a significant component of the population in the north and, as such, certainly stand to benefit significantly from the $300 million trust.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll stick with Claire's answer. I think it's quite impossible for us to say what the implications would have been.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The challenge is getting the funding onto reserve, and as I said in my earlier answer, we're looking at arrangements so that we can find ways within the Indian Act, which does not allow a private sector lender, for example, to take the asset. It is communal land; you can't take t

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's marginal. We call it section 10, the ministerial loan guarantee program. Last year we did about 170 loans--very small numbers. In terms of the private lender examples I gave you, while I don't have access to their numbers, anecdotally, from when I talk to lenders, altogether

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'd have to get you that, but it's a very small percentage of the Canadian population.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Perhaps I can talk about some of the successes. There are a number of bands out there--MBQ in Southern Ontario, the Kahnawake in Quebec--that actually have, through revolving funds and private sector funding and arrangements that they've worked out with banks.... The MBQ would

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll also comment on the integrated values. I can give you a couple of examples of where I think it really has been working well. For example, under CMHC programs, we work with the community. They design their own housing. We no longer put plans on the table and say that it has

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I have to apologize; I'm not familiar enough with the case to be able to make a good judgment here and give you any comment. I'm not sure if it would have implications or not.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Certainly one of the challenges under the Indian Act, as I explained earlier, is that as a band member, you're protected under the Indian Act. Someone off-reserve, a mortgage insurer like CMHC or a lender, cannot get a judgment against you in terms of going after your income or a

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's my understanding, yes.