It's an interesting question that you ask.
Having been in this industry for over 28 years, I was here when the federal government got out of the housing leadership role in the 1990s. They devolved all the funding to the provincial governments, and many of our provinces across this country devolved it further to the municipalities, all to the detriment of the urban indigenous portfolio.
Roxanne was bang on when she talked about an already overly burdened system. We are certainly overburdened, and it was only exacerbated when the federal government got out of investments in urban indigenous housing, because as she so rightly indicated, many of our communities, whether they're first nations, Inuit or Métis, are migrating into urban, rural and northern communities for multitude reasons and seeking a sense of belonging in those communities.
Without the ongoing investment from the federal government, most of our provinces fail to invest. Here in B.C., we were fortunate. The B.C. government did honour the Aboriginal Housing Management Association's request to be self-determined, to allow ourselves to administer our own programs. With over 25 years of experience and demonstration of our capacity, our 40-plus providers have paid off mortgages. We've divested. We've reinvested. We've branched out into social enterprise to become self-sustainable, because we have had to live off only the provincial funding that was transferred from the federal government to the Province of B.C.
The Province of B.C. has made some new investments, but there is no way they have kept pace with the need and growth in urban indigenous communities. Therefore, what we need to see is ongoing investments and the invitation from the federal government for urban indigenous leadership, whether it's AMHA, the indigenous housing caucus working group or other entities that have put recommendations to the federal government for solutions in urban, rural and northern areas.
I agree 100% that this government needs to stay vested and invested in first nations, Inuit and Métis communities, but they need to also recognize that we are underfunded in urban, rural and northern areas, and perhaps those most hard to access communities are the ones that are suffering the most.
As I said earlier, I just heard from our provincial government about a month ago that the cost for building in rural, remote and northern communities is so exacerbated right now with supply chain issues that they're considering not funding any more housing in those communities. We can't allow them to become ghost towns. We need the federal government, the provincial governments and the municipal governments to be working collaboratively.
The strategy we unveiled on January 26 outlines some very in-depth solutions that are inclusive of what many of the panellists have talked about. It's not just bricks and mortar; it's also skills, expertise, capacity-building, infrastructure, recruitment, retention and understanding what it means for cultural and trauma-informed work within our communities.
I hope that answered your question.