I'll just remind you that this is not about me nor about AHMA, but about the thousands of voices past, present and future that must be responded to.
Dispossession is the heart of why we are all here today. The very systems that dispossess us are the same systems that government now either ignorantly or purposely hides behind, thus making the notion of reconciliation not much more than tokenism.
Thankfully, organizations like AHMA, with over 40 housing and service providers across B.C., have been working hard to address these issues. However, our efforts are neither sustainable nor should they be done without the federal government engaging in partnership.
I just want to frame a comment I heard from Honourable Minister Paulie Chinna. She talked about infrastructure and the challenges of our northern and rural communities. The actual challenges of our northern and rural communities are absolute barriers when I hear sentiments from our provincial government here in B.C. indicating that the cost of building in the north is so disproportionate that they may not be able to continue to fund them. We absolutely need the federal government at our table.
In 2018, in front of over a thousand witnesses from across the housing sectors, Evan Siddall, former chair and CEO of CMHC, stated that the federal investment was coming. Four years later, despite multiple references to urban, rural and northern indigenous priorities in ministerial mandate letters, there is still no dedicated funding stream.
The long and short of it is that we need the federal government to step up, partner with people like the Aboriginal Housing Management Association and urban indigenous housing leaders to ensure that representation is at the decision-making table by the 80%-plus of indigenous peoples who are dispossessed and not connected to their traditional communities.
T’oyaxsut nüüsm. Thank you, everyone.