Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My name is Chief Patrick Michell of the Kanaka Bar Indian Band. Located on Highway 1, Kanaka Bar is 14 kilometres south of Lytton, B.C., and two and a half hours north of Vancouver, B.C.
Kanaka Bar is considered rural-remote and has recently completed 10 new shelter units, started the construction of 24 new shelter units, and another eight new resilient units are in the final planning stages.
On May 27, 2022, Kanaka Bar hosted a live and virtual event, which we called “The Results Are In”, where Kanaka Bar introduced the Fraser Canyon region's owners and tenants of homes and businesses, municipal leaders, the Thompson-Nicola Regional District representatives, and first nations leadership and membership to five building envelopes that met Kanaka Bar's community resiliency housing criteria: affordability; resiliency to heat, fire, wind, rain, and cold; energy efficiency; and durability.
On May 27, Kanaka Bar also did a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the ground clearing and site servicing work for the four new duplexes to be located on our reserve lands. Once completed, these new duplexes will provide much-needed affordable housing for our region while also showcasing what the homes of tomorrow look like today.
A team of architects and engineers are now tasked with the production of sealed design drawings and costing. Once those are in, construction on the eight new shelter units can begin. One envelope, AAC, in addition to meeting Kanaka Bar's criteria above, can create new meaningful well-paying Canadian jobs in manufacturing, warehousing, storage and construction for both new builds and resiliency retrofitting with surplus AAC also available for the export market.
Kanaka Bar's goal is not a new, resilient and sustainable economy. That's a bit big for us. Kanaka simply wishes to build homes and retrofit our existing homes and businesses with supporting infrastructure that we can live, work, and play in; shelter in place during extreme weather events; and, after the event has passed, repair and restore the systems that give Kanaka Bar membership today and our future generations quality of life.
With regard to the housing accelerator fund, what Kanaka Bar is doing is both scalable and replicable anywhere in Canada, so Kanaka Bar's learnings can help Canadians anywhere, be they urban, rural, mountain, northern, coastal or prairie.
If one changes the current, entrenched and embedded protracted system of feasible, business case, planning, permitting, design, construction, and then operating to one that sees proven builds and systems replicated where they're wanted, Canada can complete the builds and give Canadians hope in these ever-darkening times. Delay otherwise equates to cost increases, and affordability may be lost.
Where do the builds occur? COVID-19 has certainly seen a transition from urban to rural. The Fraser Canyon region currently has Crown parcels, Indian reserve lands, municipal and regional fee-simple serviced properties, many not in use and most of which can be acquired quickly for very reasonable prices.
Kanaka Bar has acquired five fee simple lands in a very short time frame. Kanaka is currently in discussion with the owners of two more properties, and all the remaining owners in our region are aware that Kanaka Bar will speak to them about sale if their price point is assessed value. Kanaka simply will not a pay a premium for lands off reserve. We will not support speculation.
I'm not sure about ownership of either the land or house under the housing accelerator fund, which seems predicated on build and sale to Canadians. Kanaka's model is communal and inclusive housing, based on tenancy rather than ownership or lease, which creates both exclusions and inequity.
Kanaka Bar has established provincially incorporated companies and societies that help develop and manage housing off reserve. With awareness of affordable and resilient options and alternatives for new builds and renovations-retrofits, Canadians can also have a safe place to live for the next 100 years.
It is by working together to permit, design and then build safe, resilient and affordable housing that Canadians will be able to live through the growing frequency, duration and intensity of extreme weather events.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.