Thank you.
I have a question for ESDC.
Many indigenous advocates and housing providers continue to question, without receiving an answer, why the federal government insists on implementing policies that balkanize on-reserve and off-reserve indigenous peoples.
The Reaching Home program illustrates this starkly. The indigenous homelessness stream provides support for off-reserve indigenous people, while the new distinctions-based and modern treaty holder funding stream denies this support.
The Aboriginal Housing Management Association, which I believe we'll be able to hear from in a future meeting, provided the following feedback on the national housing strategy in 2016, and I quote:
While this is common of all citizens, First Nations, Aboriginals and Indigenous people live between two solitudes of on-reserve and off-reserve, often moving back and forth between. Yet federal and provincial governments and housing services are delivered completely distinctly and usually roll-out of new programs that are pre-defined. This piecemeal approach neglects to deliver support to the whole person.... To replace jurisdictional and bureaucratic barriers to Indigenous Peoples with an AHMA-based model that puts responsibility in the hands of regional providers and supports individuals through delivery of meaningful solutions that address housing issues.
That's from someone in B.C.
Why didn't the government listen to and implement the solutions put forward by indigenous experts working in the housing sector when that program was developed, and why hasn't it been improved?