Evidence of meeting #34 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 39th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was housing.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Rod Bruinooge Conservative Winnipeg South, MB
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will split my time with Mr. Albrecht.
Thank you very much for your presentation.
I wanted to get a little more detail on some of the data that was collected, in particular in relation to overcrowded dwellings. I see your note on the bottom of the graph on page 8, stating that overcrowding equals one or more persons per room. Is that per bedroom or per room in house?
Assistant Director, Aboriginal Data, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
It's per room in the house, excluding bathrooms.
Conservative
Rod Bruinooge Conservative Winnipeg South, MB
Excluding bathrooms? Okay. So a family of four children and two parents that has less than six rooms would be considered overcrowded?
Assistant Director, Aboriginal Data, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
Yes.
Conservative
Rod Bruinooge Conservative Winnipeg South, MB
Regarding the Métis population in urban centres that is built into that data, are you accounting for the number of two families living in the home, for instance? If more than two families are renting a home together, is this included in your statistics? Would that still be considered one family?
Assistant Director, Aboriginal Data, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
Actually no, it would be considered two families.
Assistant Director, Aboriginal Data, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
Two families. But when we establish the overcrowding numbers, we count people. It doesn't matter if there are one, two, or three families sometimes; it's the number of people over the number of rooms.
Conservative
Rod Bruinooge Conservative Winnipeg South, MB
Moving on to “One in five Aboriginal dwellings need major repairs” on page 11, I'm looking at the Manitoba statistic. This is from 2001, when I remember buying a home, and I'm Métis from Manitoba. I assume that the home I bought, which needed major repairs, is in theory captured in that number.
Assistant Director, Aboriginal Data, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
Yes, it would be.
Conservative
Rod Bruinooge Conservative Winnipeg South, MB
Maybe it would be more relevant to ask if someone is actually living with those major repairs on a yearly basis, instead of just purchasing a home that needs major repairs. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?
Assistant Director, Aboriginal Data, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
I'm not sure. Can you provide more information?
Conservative
Rod Bruinooge Conservative Winnipeg South, MB
For instance, when I bought a home in 2001, it needed major repairs. But I fixed up the home and did the major repairs, and then it no longer needed major repairs.
What I'm saying is that I know there are a lot of Métis people out there who fix up homes that need major repairs and resell them. Maybe they are not a good example of the statistic in that number. What you're looking for are people who live in homes with major repairs and don't fix them.
Director General, Social and Demographic Statistics, Statistics Canada
Yes. The census asks the respondents at the time that they are filling out the questionnaire, what is the status or the condition of their home? Does it require major repairs or not? That's at one point in time.
Conservative
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
To follow up on Ms. Crowder's question regarding the non-participating reserves, the reasons then would be that the band council or band leadership would decide that the entire reserve would not be included. So there are potentially a number of Canadians who are being excluded from the actual data that we have here today.
Director General, Social and Demographic Statistics, Statistics Canada
Yes. When the band council indicates to Statistics Canada that they, in the reserve, do not want to participate, we do not collect information from those communities.
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Could we identify whether these are larger reserves? What kinds of numbers are we talking about? If you have 30 reserves, that could be as many as...how many thousands? Or it could be as few as a few hundred, I assume. Do we have a handle on that?
Director General, Social and Demographic Statistics, Statistics Canada
We can provide you with those numbers.
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
I'm just trying to get at the point of reliability of our data. With that number of reserves, it may not be significant at all, if they're very small. Yet it could be something that would impact our final analysis.
Another question that I'm not sure there's any answer for is, do the people who are identifying the quality of their residence and the need for major repairs self-identify that as well? What constitutes a major repair? I know some of the things I would identify, but—
Assistant Director, Aboriginal Data, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
It's self-perception, and there are three possible categories. You have the choice, as well, of identifying minor repairs.
Conservative
