I echo your sentiments. I'm rather discouraged that it's been 20 years and there is little progress despite the amount of money that has been invested.
I will point to some of my predecessors. I can tell you that Sheila Fraser, at the end of her mandate, said that the failures of the government in meeting the needs of first nations communities were unacceptable. My predecessor, about five years later, said that they were beyond unacceptable. In my view, these strong words are not driving the change that is needed.
I'd like to see a fundamentally different approach taken by the government to address the issues, whether they're around safe drinking water, emergency preparedness, housing or policing. The approach of being passive and siloed and having communities apply doesn't appear to be working. We have two decades' worth of information to show you that it isn't working on the housing front.
The other thing I would offer up is that there was an estimate of how much money and effort it would take to close the housing gap in communities. Indigenous Services Canada and CMHC didn't have a plan on how to fund that long term. You don't need to fund it all in one year, but you need to have a plan to fund it long term to support communities in creating the capacity to build and repair. The absence of that plan means that some progress is being made, but it's just not keeping pace when 80% of the needs remain unaddressed.