Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all the witnesses for coming to talk to us today about a very important situation. I remind everyone that housing is not a privilege, but is in fact a right. The duty incumbent on all of us, as parliamentarians, is to make sure that the indigenous housing issue is solved as quickly as possible.
We had the opportunity to hear a great deal about the Yänonhchia’ program. It is a great example of a program that must be encouraged.
I also remind everyone of another very problematic aspect that we are talking about today. In spite of the investment of billions of dollars, no improvements have been noted in nine years. The situation is as dismal as ever.
Fundamentally, the question I want to ask you, Mr. Haymond, is on the approach.
One of the reasons that Yänonhchia’ works and is a model, in my opinion, is because indigenous people are in fact granted a certain autonomy, self-determination, that enables them to build and fund their own homes without going through financial institutions that don’t understand the reality on indigenous reserves. This type of example should be especially useful for the federal government. It continues to use a method I consider neocolonialist, which translates into housing units built by the federal government, as though indigenous people were incapable of doing it themselves.
Can you tell us how Yänonhchia’ is part of the paradigm in which indigenous people are able to organize themselves, not only in terms of funding and capital, as you said, but also in terms of human resources, for instance?