Mr. Speaker, as to part (a), with the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, the Minister of Northern Affairs, the Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion and the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities, and in partnership with first nations, Inuit and Métis communities, the Minister of Indigenous Services was mandated in December 2021 to “continue to make immediate and long-term investments to support ongoing work to close the infrastructure gap by 2030, with a particular focus on expediting investments in Indigenous housing, with over half of the funding available by the 2022 summer construction period”. Progress on mandate letter commitments are reported through the “Mandate Letter Tracker”, on Canada.ca at https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/8f6b5490-8684-4a0d-91a3-97ba28acc9cd.
Infrastructure investments are a key element of the government's commitment to foster the growth of safe, healthy and prosperous indigenous communities and to support indigenous economic participation. The infrastructure needs of first nations communities are always evolving, whether due to changing population and demographics, adapting to climate change or changes in technology.
As required by the policy on results, since 2018-19, ISC has been reporting on indicators to measure progress toward the departmental result “Indigenous Peoples have reliable and sustainable infrastructure”, through the departmental results report. All departmental results reports are available on ISC’s website at https://www.sac-isc.gc.ca/eng/1523548227958/1523899047980.
As to part (b), ISC reports national level results through the departmental results report.
As to part (c), the department has made progress toward its departmental result “Indigenous Peoples have reliable and sustainable infrastructure”. Since 2016 and as of June 30, 2023, $9.92 billion, excluding operating expenses, of ISC-targeted infrastructure funding has been invested toward 9,457 projects, with 5,421 completed and 4,036 ongoing, that will benefit 613 communities serving approximately 474,000 people.
In addition to funding for physical infrastructure projects, these investments include more than $563.7 million to support training and capacity-building opportunities. A total of 2,837 projects, which make up 30% of the total targeted infrastructure portfolio, are training and supporting services and initiatives. These supporting infrastructure and capacity development projects help communities to advance their efforts toward self-determination.
While significant investments have been made to date, the Government of Canada knows there is more work to do.