Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
It's a great pleasure to be in front of the committee today. We really appreciate the opportunity to participate in this exercise.
Our presentation specifically addresses question number one, and it also leads into questions two and three, because housing will lead to aboriginal Canadians participating collectively in the Canadian economy.
You are well aware of the statistics, facts, and figures for vacancies, as well as the high rental rates across the country, so we won’t bore you too much with those. We will, though, highlight the reasons and the need for more social housing assistance, as well as the initiatives from the federal government for aboriginal Canadians and the shortcomings faced in bringing social housing to these same aboriginal Canadians.
Our perspective on how to increase aboriginal Canadian participation in the Canadian economy starts with access to safe, stable, and affordable housing. This will provide them with the stability and confidence to raise their families and participate in community affairs, while accessing local services and securing their families' safety and well-being. As well, stabilizing the home of aboriginal Canadians will give them the confidence to enter into further training and education, and give them the ability to gain employment, acquire jobs, start new businesses, gain home ownership, and ultimately participate in the Canadian economy and business sectors.
Over the course of the past few centuries, first nations, Inuit, and Métis people have been subjected to Indian residential schools, the sixties scoop, the reserve system, road allowance, and the big one: systemic racism. The sixties scoop is just beginning to make its way through the court system, and the latest atrocity added to this list is homelessness.
As a result of these atrocities, aboriginal Canadians still carry these societal, social, and economic disparities with them today. These individuals and families are now our tenants, and every day we deal with the people and the issues. They are hard to house, and that is why they apply and stay with aboriginal housing providers. They are not wanted by housing authorities and private landlords, as they come with a lot of issues. Often paying rent is not a priority for them due to economic and social hardships. We understand these issues and concerns, and we work with them while others don’t.
Homelessness, especially among the aboriginal population, has recently exploded. In Regina, almost 100% of homeless people are of aboriginal descent, yet programs and services are operated by non-aboriginal people and organizations that still believe that they know what’s better for aboriginal Canadians. This is contradictory to what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised in his victory night speech.
This population is hard to house. The aboriginal housing and service providers know this as fact, but each and every time we are again asked to define who is hard to house. When we submit funding proposals to the provincial government and the homelessness program, we are asked to redefine and re-explain the reasons we are eligible to receive funding through their programs. It’s tiresome, especially when the picture is so clear and is right in front of them. That is why we need the federal government to stabilize funding and priorities for aboriginal social housing.
Your questions numbered one, two, and three describe most, if not all, aboriginal people, because they just can’t compete at this level with the rest of the population, and it has been like this for years. The first step to continuing to improve on this is by providing quality, safe, and affordable housing, and stabilizing the family unit.
The current Canadian economy is limiting our ability to access funds to meet the demands of affordable housing, for example, with the role of the private sector. Profit-making companies' resources are low and that limits their participation with the non-profit charitable sectors. At one point, they were quite active in their communities, but this has drastically changed. Housing development is very expensive, even to build one new house. When we talk about constructing or purchasing multi-family units, such as duplexes and apartments, it’s a very expensive proposition. This limits the kind of profit-making companies and investors that can even consider these types of requests. This is where we require government intervention.
Private non-profit corporations such as ours have limited resources to make the kind of impact that is needed in our communities. We need to draw on collaborative partnerships to get the work done, but with the state of the Canadian economy now, it makes it very difficult. This is why we need the federal government to get back into the game. The province could do more when it comes to social housing, but its priority at this time is the private sector. The municipality does what it can, but housing is not its role, so we appreciate whatever it does manage to contribute. We need the federal government to come back to the table with some creative housing initiatives.