Indigenous housing boom forecast quiet for now

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/02/2022 (1367 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The federal government has hinted at a home-building boom this summer on First Nations reserves, but the construction sector isn’t bracing for a sudden influx of $1 billion.

“I’m hoping, that as per our mandate-letter directives, that there will be an accelerated construction across Indigenous nations for housing,” Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal said Wednesday.

The federal government launched its national housing strategy in November 2017, which included a promise for a plan for Indigenous housing that still hasn’t materialized. In the meantime, Ottawa has allocated billions for housing projects in First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities.

In last fall’s election, the Liberals pledged an additional $2 billion in new Indigenous housing. In December, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau clarified that pledge in the mandate letters he issued to ministers, whom he tasked with “expediting investments in Indigenous housing, with over half of the funding available by the upcoming summer construction period.”

Asked Wednesday about how much of the $1 billion has been allocated, Housing Minister Ahmed Hussen was unsure.

“I don’t know which particular fund you’re referring to, but we did make a number of commitments for Indigenous housing,” Hussen said during a Wednesday news conference.

He cited a COVID-19 pandemic fast-track program that has funded 10,250 new housing units, with 40 per cent of those in Indigenous communities.

A handful of Manitoba construction companies said they have seen increased demand for services from First Nations accessing more federal cash in recent years, but they didn’t expect a building bonanza to start in the coming months.

“Most of that funding hasn’t been let out yet, so nobody’s going to see a lot of it for a little bit here,” said Shane Prevost, vice-president of Selkirk-based Bison Modular Homes, which has built houses on Manitoba reserves.

“If it gets released this summer, there won’t be a lot really built this year; it would be more (so) next year.”

Vandal, who is Métis and the MP for St. Boniface—St. Vital, noted last year’s budget earmarked $18 billion over five years to help bridge infrastructure gaps in Indigenous communities.

“We’ll continue to work as a whole of government to advance the housing that’s needed, and make sure that it’s constructed,” he said.

“The need is so great… that the investments are hardly noticeable — but they’re real.”

NDP MP Niki Ashton welcomed that frankness.

“That’s a very accurate statement, but it’s just not acceptable,” said Ashton (Churchill—Keewatinook Aski).

Manitoba chiefs have long asked for cash and legal reforms that would unleash a building boom, to account for overcrowded housing that has helped tuberculosis and COVID-19 spread through reserves with few medical resources.

“This has frankly been a matter of life and death for these communities, during this pandemic,” said Ashton. “There were people who got sick because they had nowhere to live, other than overcrowded, inadequate, mouldy homes.”

Many reserves have dilapidated, modular housing that hasn’t kept up with birth rates, in part because the federal Indian Act makes it near impossible to obtain mortgages and large loans for renovations.

In a January 2015 document obtained by The Canadian Press, the federal government estimated in Manitoba alone, it would cost $1.9 billion to address overcrowding and mould issues in homes on First Nations.

“There’s definitely not a sense on the ground that there’s going to be a massive investment in housing,” Ashton said.

She noted Pimicikamak Cree Nation said its housing shortfall contributed to the tragic death of three young people in a house fire earlier this month.

The Manitoba First Nation, also known as Cross Lake, has 1,200 homes for its roughly 10,000 residents, who live 530 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

In the 2016 census, 42 per cent of homes in Cross Lake met the official criteria to be considered overcrowded.

“It can’t be after we lose more children in fires that we start listening to leaders who say housing is needed now,” said Ashton.

“This is not the time for (public relations) stunts or piecemeal funding.”

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca