I call this meeting to order.
First of all, I want to apologize to our witnesses for the delayed start. We had a delayed vote in the House of Commons and then the committee members made their way over to the committee room.
Welcome. This is the ninth meeting of the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs. We are gathered here on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe nation.
Today, we are continuing our second study on the effects of the housing shortage on indigenous peoples across Canada.
To start the discussion today, we have three witnesses.
We have the Honourable Paulie Chinna, Minister Responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. We have Raigili Amaaq, chairperson, Igloolik Housing Association, and Eiryn Devereaux, president and CEO of the Nunavut Housing Corporation.
I don't need to remind everybody about the health measures that we are following in this period of COVID, so I won't dwell on that.
To ensure an orderly meeting, I would like to outline a few rules to follow.
Members and witnesses may speak in the official language of their choice. Interpretation services in English, French and Inuktitut are available for this meeting. You have the choice at the bottom of your screen of floor, English or French. If interpretation is lost, please inform me immediately and we will ensure interpretation is properly restored before resuming the proceedings. The “raise hand” feature at the bottom of the screen can be used at any time if you wish to speak or alert the chair.
Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. When speaking, please speak slowly and clearly. When you are not speaking, your microphone should be on mute. Please stick to the allotted time. We have one hour for this first panel. I remind everyone that all comments should be addressed through the chair.
Without further ado, I would invite our first guest, the Honourable Paulie Chinna, to speak.
Minister, you have five minutes.