Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on April 8th, 2022

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Jamie Schmale]

Thank you very much, Ms. Idlout.

Thank you very much to all our witnesses for their testimony today. It will help greatly in our study as we finish the important work we're doing here.

I want to briefly suspend this meeting so we can go to our in camera portion, in which we can go over our draft report—

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Vanessa Davies]

It's not the in camera portion, sir. We're going to briefly suspend in between panels.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Jamie Schmale]

Okay, that works, too.

I will briefly suspend.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Jamie Schmale]

I want to thank our first panel of witnesses and reiterate that, but also look to our second panel of witnesses. We welcome them to our meeting.

As you probably know already, you have a five-minute opening statement, followed by our first round of questions of six minutes each.

I have on the list to begin Ms. Coreen Child, executive director of the Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness Society.

Ms. Child, you have the floor.

[Coreen Child, Executive Director, Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness Society]

[Witness spoke in Kwak'wala]

[English]

My name is Coreen Child. I am Kwakiutl from the northern end of Vancouver Island. I'm zooming in today from the Lekwungen territory, specifically the Esquimalt and Songhees nations. I honour them for allowing me to be here today.

Thank you very much for having this important conversation on indigenous housing.

As the Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness, we have an island-wide mandate. We're specifically serving the indigenous population of individuals who are experiencing homelessness here in Victoria. What I'm hoping to highlight for you today.... I won't spend too much time. I've actually looked at and viewed some of the conversations that have happened, and I know that the stats and the data and the numbers, the numbers of incarceration and all of the papers that we have on that research, are there and present. What I'm hoping to share today is a bit about the solutions around asking the federal government to look at the indigenous organizations that are doing the services directly on the ground that impact indigenous communities that are experiencing chronic homelessness or needing other alternatives.

The Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness has been.... The birth of it happened about five years ago with a study. We didn't initially plan to be a service provider, but what we realized is that with the connection to the indigenous street community, we needed to address some of the words that were being shared with the ones experiencing homelessness. We have now become a service provider. We've opened up two houses, but the one thing I want to highlight in the work that we've done is that we've grown exponentially because of the need: 35% of the indigenous people we're serving here in Victoria are experiencing homelessness. We've grown 700% in the past 23 months, going from seven staff to now over 70.

With that being said, as a non-profit organization, that really connects us to having to apply for funding streams and compete with each other, which isn't necessarily always the best avenue to build something unique and innovative, which I'll be sharing with you. Through the work that we've done with the indigenous street community, we have evolved and developed what's called “cultural supportive housing”. Cultural supportive housing is more than cultural safety. It's more than offering four walls. It's really having indigenous-led practices so that we can incorporate our teachings and our knowledge and our way of life into some of the practices and services that are desperately needed.

One thing that I specifically remember hearing, going out to visit some of our street community, is “I want to have indigenous people serving me, people looking like you and supporting me and telling me your success stories of how to get out of this.” Cultural supportive housing is not defined. It is something that is growing and lives and breathes every day. We have cultural mentors and supports that come in.

The other area we're working on is decolonizing harm reduction, so that's meeting people where they're at, bringing in elders, bringing in traditional medicine, and with that, connecting to land-based healing. One of our main focuses is getting our people off the street, taking a break from the cement and the sounds, and going out onto the land, connecting them to their traditional foods, creating healthy values and creating a healthy awareness of themselves. That has been integral.

I really hope the federal government looks at the landscape of supporting organizations like ours directly and does not necessarily get us to compete for those funds, but realizes that we're making an impact on the ground that is actually creating sustainable efforts. Some of the people we've housed are housed longer than a year and we're celebrating that with them. That's because there's love in our organization and in our delivery of services, and that is something I hold very near and dear. I'm proud of our amazing team and the leadership that is here.

We're not doing things out of “This is what we think. We're the professionals.” We're going to them to get the guidance on what it needs to look like: How do we get you out of lineups? How do we get you feeling that you're not entering the building and being documented at every move? How do we make your house a home and a place you can be proud of and familiar with, away from systems that have held you oppressed?

I'm really looking forward to sharing further. Thank you very much.

Gilakas'la.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Jamie Schmale]

Thank you so much. I appreciate that testimony.

I want to bring in the next witness. We have a five-minute round for Ms. Roy, the director of operations at the Aboriginal Friendship Centre of Calgary.

Ms. Roy, you have five minutes.

[Melissa Roy, Director of Operations, Aboriginal Friendship Centre of Calgary]

?aben.

My name is Melissa Roy. I'm originally from the Tsideldel First Nation in B.C. I am honoured to work and live in Treaty 7 territory.

Thank you for the opportunity to present to the committee members regarding the unique housing needs of our people in an urban setting.

Calgary's 2018 housing assessment notes that “the need for affordable housing is expected to exceed 100,000 households by 2026”. That same report cites the need for “culturally sensitive housing and supports” for Calgary's indigenous population.

Cultural reconnection is at the heart of everything we do at the Aboriginal Friendship Centre of Calgary. Ongoing racism, discrimination, intergenerational trauma and colonialism have disconnected our people from our cultures. This is especially true of the urban indigenous people. National trends show that migration from reserves to urban settings is increasing, which means the need for culturally sensitive housing and supports will continue to grow.

Here's the reality of affordable housing in the city of Calgary. Twenty per cent of those renting make $36,000 a year or less, which means they can afford to pay $900 a month. Only 11% of rentals can be found for $900 a month. Most of them are one-bedroom units. Rent has increased by 14% in the last year alone, and landlords have become more stringent on credit checks and income verification. Inflation is at an all-time high.

The oil and gas sectors are rebounding, which is good news for the economy, but the rebound comes with its own challenges. Calgarians are now competing with oil and gas workers who come in from other provinces and countries for rental units, which adds to the pressure and the barriers our people face in finding affordable housing.

The 2018 “What We Heard Report Summary: Indigenous Housing Capital Program, Alberta Seniors and Housing” reports that indigenous families are the most in need of affordable housing. The housing most needed to accommodate families is homes with three or more bedrooms.

Now, consider the housing landscape I have laid out for you. We work with survivors of domestic violence and their children, with youth who left the reserves and do not have the life skills to thrive in the city, and with those who are jobless. We work with individuals who have mental health and addiction issues, the chronically homeless, former sex trade workers and men and women leaving corrections. Now, imagine that you're one of these individuals and you're trying to turn your life around.

Housing is a social determinant of health, yet the current systems continue to marginalize our people and set them up for failure. Families and individuals may wait up to five years to receive affordable housing. During that time, families and individuals are expected to check in with housing authorities. They don't receive reminders, and if they fail to check in, they must redo the housing assessment.

Twelve-step programs advise you not to associate with the people and places that are part of your life of addiction, yet we place people who are trying to recover in unsafe neighbourhoods, further crippling their chances of recovery and well-being. One mistake may result in eviction and a return to their old lifestyle. There is no flexibility and there is no humanity in the current processes.

We need choice and self-determination. We need an increase in affordable housing inventory that integrates culture and indigenous leadership. We need wraparound supports to help our people navigate that system. Government policies continue to perpetuate poverty and housing insecurity.

What are you prepared to do differently? What you're doing right now isn't working. It is time to move from calls to action into action. We must work together.

We need to pay homage to and value indigenous world views. An example is a recently announced AFCC elders lodge, the first of its kind in Calgary. Funding from the Government of Canada, the Government of Alberta, the City of Calgary and the Calgary Homeless Foundation shows how this unique project can inspire future housing opportunities and demonstrate how integral community partners are in our journey to wellness.

Our home fires need to be healthy to heal, and the way to well-being is through culture, which you can only understand through the act of reconciliation. Let us not forget the wise words of the commissioners of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: “Reconciliation is not an aboriginal problem; it is a Canadian one.”

Sechanalyagh.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Jamie Schmale]

Thank you very much, Ms. Roy.

Next up, we have Lisa Smith, senior director of governance, international and parliamentary relations at the Native Women's Association of Canada.

Ms. Smith, you have five minutes.

[Lisa J. Smith, Senior Director, Governance, International and Parliamentary Relations, Native Women's Association of Canada]

Thank you. It's truly an honour to be among you all today, so thank you for the invitation.

To the other panel members, thank you very much. I'm really enjoying this discussion.

I'm based out of NWAC's national office in Quebec, but I'm speaking to you today from my home in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, the land of the Beothuk.

NWAC believes that addressing indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people's access to housing is a necessary step forward in addressing the ongoing process of genocide in Canada. It is important to ground the basic right of housing for indigenous peoples in UNDRIP, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Article 23 is engaged. I would also argue, based on the last panel member's submissions, that article 3, self-determination, is always a part of this discussion as well.

Honourable members, indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people experience unique challenges in accessing affordable and safe housing. It is evident that ongoing challenges with colonialism, infrastructure and race- and gender-based discrimination continue to prevent indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people from accessing appropriate housing resources. The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, MMIWG, reported that indigenous women tend to experience high rates of violence because they lack housing. In the 231 calls for justice, honourable members, there are 10 calls for improving access to housing for indigenous women.

NWAC is working hard to help. We are very stretched, but we are helping. Under NWAC's environmental conservation and climate change office, the housing project's objective was to conduct research and engage with indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people to determine what their needs are and how they can be fulfilled.

The housing project report was published on March 31, 2020. I'm going to take a couple of highlights from it. It's all very important. I encourage you to read it on your own time. “Extreme weather and coastal erosion brought on by climate change”—so that's a part of the discussion as well—“are already destroying the inadequate housing stock in Inuit Nunangat”. The housing in the north has unique and varying factors.

Also, as a backdrop to this discussion, according to Caryl Patrick:

Sections 28 and 29 of the Indian Act prohibit lending institutions from seizing on-reserve assets in the event of payment default. This makes them rarely willing to lend to First Nations people on reserve, making it extremely difficult for First Nations people to obtain financing to build or renovate their homes on reserve.... The result is an acute shortage of housing, which, along with population growth, makes it inevitable for families to crowd into any available shelter, no matter how poorly maintained.

According to an interim report by APPA, in the other House:

Building codes are not developed for Northern climates...and many houses were not designed for local climates and soil conditions, or were built with subpar building materials.... Poor housing conditions have also led to an increase in house fires; the rate of fire deaths on-reserve is 10 times higher than that of off-reserve populations.

Further, according to the Manitoba office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives:

Due to extreme housing shortages, such as in Canada's North, Indigenous women (and their children) can be forced to stay with abusive partners simply because they have nowhere else to go.... If they do choose to flee their abusive homes, they can be forced into exploitative situations to meet their (and their children's) basic needs.

This is increasing the risks of homelessness.

In sum, honourable members, access to safe and good housing is necessary to ensure that the health and safety of indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people are protected. Ultimately, indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people are experts of their own experiences and must be involved in the development and implementation strategies that address indigenous housing needs.

The MMIWG calls for justice must be implemented.

NWAC would like to bring special attention to those relating to housing under the headings of “Human Security”, “Child Welfare” and “2SLGBTQQIA-Specific Calls for Justice”.

Thank you, honourable members and panel members.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Jamie Schmale]

You're right on time, Ms. Smith. That was well done. Thank you very much.

Thank you to all our witnesses for that amazing testimony.

We will go to our first round of questioning. We have a six-minute round.

First up is Ms. Rood from the Conservative Party.

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the witnesses today for their testimony.

I'm just going to take a quick moment to highlight some challenges that one of the first nations in my riding, Walpole Island First Nation, has faced in housing. They've had many struggles for years, and 90% of homes on the island can't access natural gas. It forces them to use more expensive propane to heat their homes.

I've also heard from Walpole Island about the struggles of the rising costs of building supplies due to inflation and what that does when they're trying to renovate their homes up to just the minimum standards or when building new structures. The infrastructure gap is wide here too. Land is available for development, but it doesn't have basic services like power, water and sewer available, which have to be added before the land can be developed.

Ms. Child, I know your organization focuses on Vancouver Island, but I see a lot of parallels with indigenous communities in my riding. The Walpole Island and Kettle & Stony Point first nations have all struggled with the opioid epidemic, and they're working to help their communities recover. I'm wondering what kind of impact access to stable housing has on helping address the opioid crisis and alleviate homelessness. Can you maybe tell us what your organization has done that has worked? Also, could you share some success stories?

[Coreen Child]

I do want to say how important our land-based healing over the past few years has been for the support of people who are battling not just the opioid crisis but also different forms of addiction. When I look at some of the successes.... There are individuals who have highlighted why they use opioids. You find those conversations when you're having those intimate moments of spiritual connection to the land and to other areas where there's reflection on life and the importance of taking a break from what is actually causing those memories to keep on flowing, and really celebrating the successes of where individuals are at.

There are individuals who have shared, “I've gone from 12 points to six points, and now I'm at one point of opioid use because of pain management.” When you start to celebrate those along the way, you see the impact. I've actually seen people move from those 12 points to six points to one point and be able to sustain not using opioids for the past 18 months.

I think it's those moments when you get to be a witness and a little bit of a champion and carer to someone, when someone believes that someone is going to be there consistently for them. I think this conversation is the way in which the federal government can fund directly services like this so that we can create the consistency that is very valid and important to this work.

There's also looking at different avenues of innovation. We use the term “innovation”, but that connection to community.... I just want to say this. When we're looking at indigenous people, we need to know where they're coming from.

The other thing I want to highlight is that I went into an institution, one of the prisons, and this person who was supporting that individual said, “This person is not interested in culture and doesn't want to connect.” I said, “Where is this person from?” And they're like, “They're not connecting to the elder who's here.” The person had the background of Cree, and the individual who was supporting the person was of a totally different background.

If we're not linking that knowledge and the communities together, the practices won't flow and that discussion doesn't become at ease. I would say those are successes when we make sure we're investing into the indigenous population and the partners who want to be able to do this frontline work. We're all impacted in different ways as to why we choose this work.

I want to say that land-based healing has brought a really powerful avenue to our work, and I know we're going to be able to show in those successes that it does work.

Thank you.

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

Thank you for sharing that.

Ms. Smith, I have a question for you.

It's been identified by previous witnesses on this committee that the lack of available housing on reserve is preventing people who want to move back home from actually moving back home. I saw in your 2021 annual report that you have investigated that link. I'm just wondering if you can expand on that report.

What are the specific rigid housing regulations and practices followed by social service authorities that are in the way? How should government cut back this red tape, so that indigenous women can move back into their communities and reconnect with their culture?

[Lisa J. Smith]

Thank you. That's an excellent question.

Unfortunately, I'm not an expert in this regard. We do have people who work out of NWAC who are based on this. My job, as senior director, is more high-level. I am the senior director of international governance and parliamentary relations.

It is an important question. If granted, I can get back to you with specific recommendations in that regard. I do want to be careful with this conversation as it is a very important one.

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Jamie Schmale]

Thank you very much, Ms. Rood, for your questions, and thank you to Ms. Smith and other witnesses for their answers.

We'll go on to our second questioner, who's from the Liberal Party.

According to my notes, we have Vance Badawey for six minutes.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I'm going to ask two questions.

As many of the witnesses recognized, the budget was released yesterday. There are two areas of the budget that I was most interested in, as the parliamentary secretary for Indigenous Services. One relates in particular to housing off reserve, in the urban and rural areas. It was announced yesterday that $300 million in urban and rural housing is going to be brought forward.

I was interested in some of the comments made by other panellists earlier on. I want to clarify one thing and then ask a question.

The one thing I want to clarify was the comment made about the programming being “controlled” by the CMHC. I think that was the word that was used. That's, in fact, not the case. Unfortunately, the federal government doesn't have a department of housing and therefore we delegate and/or count on the CMHC to be a flow-through for the monies we would otherwise be putting towards those programs. In this case, that's what they are—a flow-through.

It's imperative that as the money flows through, we hear from the indigenous community to ensure and/or move forward with the recommendations that are brought to us by the indigenous community.

I think the question might be appropriately given to Ms. Smith. I will aim this question at you.

Can you elaborate on some of the specific strategies that you can see some of these dollars going to? How would it be rolled out to these different objectives in the urban and rural housing environment?

[Lisa J. Smith]

Thank you for the question, honourable member.

I will discuss NWAC's action plan. It's called “Our Calls, Our Actions”. NWAC is striving to implement the calls for justice under the MMIWG. In terms of housing, we are looking to develop a prototype for an affordable and culturally appropriate housing model on or off reserve.

At this juncture, I will highlight that we do have a healing lodge in Chelsea, Quebec. We're really getting into that land-based healing and we're seeing wonderful results. We're also set to open up another resiliency lodge in New Brunswick.

That's what NWAC is looking to do in terms of our action plan on this subject.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Thank you, Ms. Smith.

I'm going to roll now into another budgetary item that was contained within yesterday's budget 2022 announcement. That's the $4 billion for indigenous housing that was announced. It's somewhat unprecedented, with the amount of monies that will now be going on reserve to indigenous housing. We will work in partnership with the first nations, Inuit and Métis communities to co-develop and implement housing strategies.

I want to dig a bit deeper on co-developing and implementing housing strategies. I'm going to open up this question to Ms. Child.

Ms. Child, can you give some comment on that with respect to co-developing and implementing housing strategies that would attach to yesterday's budget 2022 announcement of $4 billion for indigenous housing?

[Coreen Child]

Thank you for your question.

I definitely think that in the co-development and reciprocal information finding, I would really love to have opportunities to share our own frameworks on which we're hearing from the indigenous street communities that we're serving. Over the past few years, we have been meeting directly with the indigenous street community. In that co-development that you're looking for, when we talk about cultural supportive housing, land-based healing and decolonizing harm reduction, I believe there definitely needs to be room and a lane for us to lead some of this work.

In our work, we always have to show and reflect our research and our professionalism and how tight our knowledge is to lead it forward, but I guess in this position what we would be asking the government and others to help us do is allow us to lead this work directly, investing in indigenous organizations like ours that are willing to create different models and different avenues and solutions.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Absolutely.

[Coreen Child]

The Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness Society started out with a small dream. We built something very large, in the sense of the impact we're having in successfully housing people. I think that should be seen as not necessarily being about the roof and the four walls but about the service and the programming, and about creating ways to address that feeling of being monitored and watched.

In many ways and at many times, indigenous people have had to feel like they were lining up and were just a number in having a service. The way we want to lead is to address the fact that we know what those feelings are and we want to eliminate them. We can do that by supporting the indigenous population and by reflecting that we have learned from that knowledge and we're going to do something differently.

Investing into the work that we're doing creates a different platform, in a way. We can actually say that we're housing people with this positive flow that everyone's trying to contribute to—from the street to supportive housing to shelter, and from supportive housing into independent housing and affordable housing.

The numbers may seem small, but I can tell you that we have helped 14 and pretty close to 20 people move into independent housing. We were a champion for them, to witness their work, but in many senses it was the discrimination and the visible viewpoint of them that didn't allow them to be housed. Now that they have the support, here they are, over a year later, rocking it and feeling like a part of society. Rather than “I don't want to be the burden” or “I don't want to be certain things in this world”, they're totally going, “People, I'm going to be amazing.”

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Jamie Schmale]

Ms. Child, I'm sorry. We're about 45 seconds over.

[Coreen Child]

I'm sorry.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Thank you, Ms. Child, and thank you, Mr. Chair.