Thank you.
I think they have to deal directly, on a government-to-government basis, with the Northwest Territory Métis Nation, for one thing. We've been lobbying for a long time. I've been involved in this for 27 years now. I've continually and always put it through that the Métis National Council does not represent the Northwest Territory Métis Nation. We are our own government. We have our own land base. We're negotiating a land claim agreement. We will own our own lands and resources.
I think that's the biggest thing they have to do: Deal with the Northwest Territory Métis Nation directly and change their policy of dealing with the national council. We're in two different territories, for one thing. The Métis National Council does not have a land base. I don't know why they deal with the Métis National Council on the housing aspect directly, but without leaving us....
I think they have to recognize all the aboriginal groups on their own. The Northwest Territory Métis Nation has pushed that issue for a long time. I'm sure the Prairie Métis—they're in Alberta as well—would prefer to do their own rather than deal with the Métis National Council. They received $500 million. We're going to receive $6 million over the next three years now, because we got some money just late in the fall. We still have problems we have to deal with as well. We're trying to settle our land claim so that we don't have the policies affecting us, saying that we have to own the land before we can access housing programs.
If we had our money now and we had our land claim settled, we'd be able to be working with the GNWT as well, in partnership, working on all sorts of housing programs for our people, whether it's low-cost housing or affordable housing or elders' programs.
We definitely need to have our own funding. It's almost like we live in two different times. If you come into the north and then come into the south, it's totally different. We're at the grassroots level. We're sitting there in our communities. We have very, very little capacity—if any at all. We have no affordable housing units available for our people. We're starting at the grassroots level in building our communities.
As I said, they have to deal directly with us. Thank you.