Good afternoon. Thank you very much to the committee today for allowing me the time to do a presentation, and thanks to the two presenters who came before me as well.
My name is Stan Delorme. I'm the chairperson of the Buffalo Lake Métis Settlement. Our council consists of four council members plus the chair.
Buffalo Lake Métis Settlement is situated in the northeastern part of Alberta, the gateway to Fort McMurray, near Lac La Biche, Alberta. We are one of eight Métis settlements and we're unique to Canada. I believe we're the only Métis settlement landholders in Canada.
Buffalo Lake is located approximately 200 kilometres northeast of Edmonton, which is the major centre closest to Buffalo Lake for any kind of shopping. Buffalo Lake has a population of approximately 700 adults, not including the children who are 18 years of age and younger. We have approximately 240 dwellings, which indicates that there is a critical shortage given the number of people we have on settlement land.
We estimate our on-settlement population to be, at any given time, around 1,200 people who reside on Buffalo Lake, and we've witnessed an increase in the last while due to COVID, with families wanting to move home. Some would like to move back, but unfortunately there's a housing shortage that prevents them from doing so.
There's a severe and critical shortage of capacity to build homes and to accommodate basic housing needs. Provincial housing dollars have decreased, leaving our organization to apply for federal housing programs such as the rapid housing initiative program. To meet the criteria for these funds, modular units are only transitional in nature since they are smaller than normal modular long-term sustainable housing units.
As I said, Buffalo Lake has approximately 240 homes, and its housing stock, if you want to call it that, is basically getting old, with the last batch of houses built back in 2008 and only a few new houses built in recent years. I must add that people are still living in homes that were built in the 1970s and early 1980s. As well, a large percentage of homes were built in the 1990s.
Some of our infrastructure consists of 160 kilometres of gravel roads. We have a water treatment plant that's getting outdated, and it's obviously costing the community a few more dollars than we had really anticipated. We have two water delivery trucks that haul water to homes on a daily basis, which raises our operational budget costs as well.
The effects of the housing shortage include illness due to mould—I believe Herb Lehr spoke about that to some degree—and an increased cost of infrastructure and budget for water and sewer and for water deliveries. Generally families are deprived of rest and sleep, and there is a loss of education due to the high cost of utilities, which has increased dramatically in the last number of months. Sometimes families have to choose between heating and lighting their homes and buying food.
Our population is young. We have young families with one and two children who are living with their parents, and sometimes with their grandparents. These are multi-generational families. We also have seniors who are at risk of being homeless. We're finding any alternative available, such as living in recreational trailers over the winter months and hooking up to power in their family's yards.
Buffalo Lake Métis Settlement held a housing consultation with our members back in July of 2019 and received feedback on our housing. The feedback relayed the need for housing for single families living with their parents and grandparents and for the seniors who lack housing and are homeless, meaning that some of the homes they had to move out of were basically not proper living accommodations.
We have some large multi-generational families living in one home. For example, one family home has 13 people living in it. Can you imagine having 13 people in a two- or three-bedroom bungalow? There are grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren all living in one home.
We are currently—