Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on March 4th, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you.

President Obed, did you want to comment briefly or are you okay?

[Natan Obed]

I'll just jump in briefly.

There are a few different components to that. First and foremost, the majority of Inuit live in social housing. Through the Inuit Nunangat housing strategy, we imagined we were going to have a diverse set of circumstances. Growing home ownership within our communities is going to help us in fiscal wealth and in economic development.

Pushing to end the housing crisis will also allow for community-based businesses and regional businesses to benefit and get away from a south-north connection, where we get all of our resources and all of the expertise from the south. We have such an intermittent access to these developments in small communities.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you very much, Mr. Vidal.

Mrs. Atwin, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Jenica Atwin, Liberal, Fredericton, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to our witnesses for joining us today.

I'm going to use my time to pick up on an issue that my colleague MP Battiste brought up. It's around limited land.

As the member of Parliament for Fredericton, I have the honour of representing two indigenous communities, which are St. Mary's First Nation and Oromocto First Nation. One is an urban community and the other is a much smaller kind of municipality, but they both have this issue of limited land as their communities continue to grow.

Chief Haymond, perhaps I'll address you.

Is this a limitation that you're also seeing in Quebec communities, and perhaps more broadly throughout Canada in your role? If so, what path would you suggest to address this, considering the long and cumbersome additions-to-reserves process?

[Chief Lance Haymond]

It's a good question. Again, I don't want to speak on behalf of all first nations across the country, because our realities are very different and there is leadership within those regions who will speak to what they need.

In Quebec most certainly we are seeing that land is at a premium. With growing demographics and small communities, meeting housing needs is going to be a challenge. The only current way to increase the size of our communities is the additions-to-reserves process. Again, it's been reworked and improved. I think the work is still ongoing on this policy, so we need to find a different mousetrap.

Additions to reserve will work in certain circumstances. Many first nations across this country are treaty first nations, so the land they require, I'm assuming, would be part of those discussions under treaty rights and treaty land entitlement. In Quebec, given that most nations have unceded territories, I think there is an opportunity we can expand and increase the size of our communities by sitting down and having discussions with Crown-Indigenous Relations about recognizing our rights and title, rather than going through a comprehensive claims process, a specific claims process or the additions to reserve.

We believe that is a viable opportunity, but again, it takes political will. There is a third player that has to come into this discussion, and that's the province, which will not get involved in most instances. What they like to do when we talk about housing needs, particularly of our urban members, is to just simply shrug it off and say that it's a federal responsibility.

Again, there are opportunities to expand our land bases, working in collaboration with the province and the federal government, and to quit being dependent on additions to reserve and these other processes that are complex, take time and have a huge host of challenges.

[Jenica Atwin, Liberal, Fredericton, NB]

Meegwetch, Chief.

President Obed, for the Inuit Nunangat housing strategy, I'm just wondering what role the Inuit-Crown partnership committee plays in measuring progress on that. Do you have any general comments around the progress or lack thereof?

[Natan Obed]

We do have a mechanism within the Inuit-Crown partnership committee process where, once a year, we reflect on the work we have done to date and the progress we have made.

On this particular strategy, there has not been as much progress made as we would have hoped. Part of that is because of the pandemic and because of the penultimate focus of the Government of Canada and of Inuit leadership on a COVID response over the last two years. There still is a lot of work to do, and we have committees in place and we are working through some of these challenges to ensure that we get the most out of all federal departments that have anything to do with the housing continuum.

Too often we are told to go directly to Indigenous Services in relation to housing, when we know that CMHC has a wealth of experience in data collecting and summaries, and in understanding the housing market and its different parts. It isn't just the “dollars and cents” money situation that we're looking for. We are looking for the full breadth of knowledge that the federal government has to be applied to working on interventions and the housing crisis for Inuit Nunangat.

[Jenica Atwin, Liberal, Fredericton, NB]

How much—

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you very much, Ms. Atwin.

Mrs. Gill, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to hand the floor over to Chief Haymond for the few seconds I have left. He may have something to add in terms of solutions or problems. Or perhaps he might wish to share his main recommendations with us.

Thank you. Meegwetch.

[Chief Lance Haymond]

Thank you, Madam Gill. I think I would just reiterate what we spoke about. The state of the housing situation as we identified it presents several challenges, but it also offers us a share of the opportunities. We spoke about the socio-economic impacts that could result from the federal government funding the catch-up project that we have been discussing. The links between housing and other spheres of society have been demonstrated, so investing heavily in first nations housing could benefit us in other areas, especially in stimulating the economy and addressing some of the social ills and future social development of our communities.

Our figures also show that every time the federal government has made additional investments in housing, for instance through Canada's economic action plan, the impact on the core needs has been visible. We can demonstrate in Quebec that it reduces core needs, which means that the impacts are being felt locally.

I guess my final message is that we need stable, predictable funding and that the current funding levels are insufficient to meet our needs. When we're telling you we need to build 1,000 to 2,000 units per year and the current funding level allows us to do only 245, that speaks to a huge gap. Then when you take the data that Regional Chief Woodhouse spoke about, which has been diligently collected by the AFN over the past couple of years so that we have a national picture, you get a clear sense of the scope of the issue.

Again, I think that for Quebec, home ownership is part of our solution, but not for all communities. We need to work and find different tools. Regional Chief Woodhouse spoke of ministerial loan guarantees. Here in Quebec, many first nations do not require ministerial loan guarantees as they have been able to establish relationships with banking institutions like the Royal Bank and the Bank of Montreal. These banks work with the communities to provide mortgages for our members who have the ability to repay. Subsequently, we will move the spectrum from dependence on social housing towards one in which we have a mix of social housing for those in need and home ownership for those who can afford it.

Again, thank you very much, Madame Gill and other members of the committee, for inviting me and the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador to speak about the challenges but, more importantly, the opportunities and the plan we've developed.

I could sit here and be very critical of the government and Indigenous Services and CMHC, but it is not helpful if we only criticize and we do not bring forward viable options and solutions that specifically meet the realities of first nations here in Quebec.

Thank you. Meegwetch.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you, Chief Haymond.

Thank you, Mrs. Gill.

Our last speaker is Madam Idlout.

Madam Idlout, you have two and a half minutes.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

[Member spoke in Inuktitut, interpreted as follows:]

First, I would like to ask Natan a question, and the other two speakers can reply to it as well.

Are you confident that, if the federal government continues its current approach to housing development in Nunavut, there will be a significant difference in housing conditions within the next two years?

[Natan Obed]

Without significant and enhanced new investment, the 40% need for core housing most likely will increase. We have no plan right now other than the status quo. Yes, there have been investments in housing, but we have a growing population and we also have higher costs than we have ever had. Without a completely new investment—

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

I'm so sorry to interrupt you.

I'll just ask my question in English. What specific recommendations do you have to change the colonial policies that you mentioned in your presentation?

[Natan Obed]

First and foremost, the distinctions-based way that this government can work with first nations, Inuit and Métis, and also empowering Inuit self-determination as a part of these solutions, will go a long way towards getting to a better place when it comes to the respect for housing and for indigenous peoples.

I also think that recognizing this as a national crisis and understanding that it is the obligation of the Government of Canada to fulfill not only the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples but also the international human right to housing, all comes into play, as well, when it comes to what we need to do for Inuit here in this country in regard to housing.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you very much, Ms. Idlout.

That concludes our second panel.

I would like to thank Regional Chief Cindy Woodhouse, Chief Lance Haymond, as well as President Natan Obed, for appearing before our committee today and providing their insights on a very urgent subject. It's certainly one, to quote one of you, that is the “root cause” of a great deal many other challenges.

We very much appreciate your appearance today. Thank you very much.

Thank you, committee members. Our meeting today is now adjourned.