Basically it is just by adding more homes. That's what we need across Canada. We just need to have more housing, period.
What we see quite often, in particular with respect to young indigenous men, is that if the economic opportunity isn't there or they've lost hope, there's a high likelihood that they'll end up in the justice system. They'll be a victim of organized crime in terms of being recruited. It's fairly easy if individuals have lost hope. Once in the system, a young man might be brought to Kenora with one or two charges. He's processed through the justice system through the courts and then he's released on promise to appear, but he's not going back home. He's actually staying in Kenora, off reserve.
We looked at 3,060 breach cases in Kenora over a period of five years to see what the commonalities were. I can tell you that when individuals are brought to an urban centre, released and told to stay there, and then they're told that their condition is to just not drink or to not do drugs—if it was an addiction that brought them there—but they're sent on their way without supports, within hours or within a couple of days they're back in the justice system.
We might have a young man coming to Kenora with one or two charges. By the time he leaves, it's probably 20 to 30 charges. The likelihood of that young person not getting employment because of their criminal record.... It's incredibly difficult. That's what we're seeing.
As one of the police detachment commanders put it, in our region we have a charge factory when it comes to indigenous young men.