Absolutely, and thank you for the question.
While we hear and we speak about a national housing strategy, we're agreeable to that happening as long as there's room for regions like Quebec to take charge and take the lead in developing the housing solutions for our communities.
With the data that we've been collecting since 2020, we don't simply just sit on it. We have developed, in concert with our chiefs and our housing administrators in our respective communities, a strategy that is built on three pillars. It touches a bit on what Mr. Battiste spoke about.
Housing can be an economic development driver. We're looking at it more so in the sense that, as part of our Quebec strategy adopted by the chiefs in assembly, we need to develop capacities at all levels. Better housing administrators, chiefs and councils who understand the cost of housing, carpenters and plumbers—it's all of those opportunities that exist.
We also have a second pillar, which looks at how we get more funds to address the needs but, at the same time, looks at more financing options. When we talk about CMHC and Indigenous Services, we are primarily talking about social housing. We're not really talking about home ownership, and there's an opportunity to explore that further with our communities.
The final pillar of our strategy is that we need more autonomy. That autonomy means being able to make decisions that are in the best interests of the first nations in Quebec. We know the situation. We know our communities well. At the end of the day, Indigenous Services, CMHC and the Assembly of First Nations can profess to finding solutions, but to make them applicable and to implement them, they have to be designed within the strategy that's already been adopted by the chiefs in Quebec.
As we said, the numbers and the needs are staggering, so we have a plan.