Of course, as you know, in the national housing strategy there was money set aside for what is called “on reserve”, which was essentially agreements made between the Assembly of First Nations, ITK and the Métis National Council. In that respect, there was some solid governance and input from those three groups. However, what was left out, as you point out correctly, were the roughly 80% of indigenous peoples living in urban, rural and, of course, as you know, northern settings.
We have within our organization an indigenous caucus made up of approximately 100 indigenous housing providers. They have decades of expertise in delivering housing to indigenous peoples in those settings. We've developed a framework, which we call our “for indigenous by indigenous strategy”, or FIBI strategy. We've talked to your colleagues on the HUMA committee about that. It is absolutely crucial that there be a component, a set-aside, for northern indigenous communities and housing providers, because, Mr. McLeod, as you know much better than I do, housing in the north is in an absolutely deplorable state.
I heard in your last panel a mayor from, I believe, Nunavut or the NWT talk about housing in her communities. I can tell you that today I learned the board member from the Northwest Territories on my board, who lives in Arviat, just came down with COVID, and sadly, because she lives in a very overcrowded housing unit in Arviat, most of the members of her family have also come down with COVID.
It's a very sad situation, and we hope that through a dedicated urban-rural northern strategy, indigenous peoples in these regions not only will have access to the funding and supports, but can play a key role in the governance and oversight of those funds.