Thank you very much.
Thank you to all of our witnesses for being here today, un grand merci.
I do want to direct my questions to the First Nations Market Housing Fund. Thank you for joining us today. Yesterday the CBC broke some shocking news, I would say, about the amount of money that exists in the First Nations Market Housing Fund and the fact only 99 homes have been built. Mr. Beaucage, you know the reality of housing insecurity in first nations first hand, and I'd like to say that all I heard from my constituents was outrage.
The levels of housing insecurity that exist in northern Manitoba and other regions across the country can only be classified as third world. I was in Opaskwayak Cree Nation last week and the number one concern I heard was housing. I heard from people who were willing to pay some sort of amount, but only in return for seeing change in their community. I spoke to leaders who have no money to build new housing. In fact, they're looking to buy homes in an urban centre because they have no other solutions for their own people. I've been to communities where there's a housing waiting list of 300 homes; in homes where there are 17 people living; in homes that are mould infested that don't have windows but only plastic coverings; and in homes that don't have running water, no sinks, and only a toilet outside. We are talking about a third world in our own country. To hear that there's $344 million sitting in a fund that is to be spent on housing for first nations people, the people who need that money the most, and that $3.6 million is spent annually on administrative costs is cause for outrage. That outrage is palpable, based on what we're hearing from folks on the ground and what's being shared by Reuters, as well in response to the news that was broken.
Clearly this is not working. You've been given a mandate and I understand that. My issue is with the fact that when we do raise the housing issue with government leaders in the House of Commons, we hear about the First Nations Market Housing Fund. How can one possibly say this is working when it clearly isn't? Should that $344 million not be redirected immediately to begin addressing the huge housing backlog that exists on first nations, rather than sitting on it, not meeting any of the targets, and recognizing this is a egregious gap that first nations people face in our country?