Nakurmiik, Lori. Thank you for the question.
The challenges that we have had, not only with housing but other infrastructure dollars, is that, if there is an announcement in a federal budget or an announcement by the government for a specific initiative, the approvals in Treasury Board, the approvals of the terms and conditions, the agreements that then are made between Inuit land claim organizations or territorial or provincial governments and the federal government, all delay the ability to start on those housing or infrastructure projects. We're not talking about a month or two. We're talking about missing a window by a few weeks leading to a year of delay.
When we talk about the concerns around flowing funds for infrastructure, especially for housing, the needs of the sealift season and the ability to procure the goods for that sealift season are make or break for whether or not we're able to have our shovel-ready projects—as the government loves to use that term—go to fruition in the timelines that the government would like to see.
As I've said on a number of different areas, we have shared ambition. Inuit want something that the government wants. We try our best to figure out how to undertake the work in the way that the government demands, but often the government doesn't necessarily care about the limitations that Inuit and Inuit Nunangat have when it comes to deadlines and when it comes to terms, conditions and programs.
We would love to see a more distinctions-based focus, and also, from an Inuit perspective, we need to have flexibility with the way funds are delivered to allow for the challenges that we face with remoteness and also with the costs. Our costs are much higher than in other places.
As for reform or legislative changes, we have the federal housing legislation that was passed only a few years ago that has significant gaps in relation to distinctions-based indigenous perspectives. We need to revisit that particular act and ensure that there is a declared housing policy under part IV of the act that could include an explicit commitment to linking the right to housing for indigenous peoples as a judiciable right under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.