Indigenous leaders are concerned about when communities will see money pledged in the federal budget for urban, rural and Northern housing. Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said it needs to be distributed directly to communities as soon as possible.
“It’s disheartening to see that the last couple of years First Nations have been asking and not getting,” Woodhouse Nepinak told CBC Indigenous. On Tuesday, the federal government released its first budget since Mark Carney became prime minister. Indigenous Services Canada and Crown-Indigenous Relations face two per cent cuts, equaling about $2.3 billion by 2030, to their department budgets.
The budget also saw the federal government recommit to $2.8 billion over three years for the Urban, Rural and Northern Indigenous Housing program. This is the amount of funding that remains from the $4.3 billion over seven years first announced in the 2022 and 2023 budgets.
So, far, about $280 million went to the National Indigenous Collaborative Housing Incorporated (NICHI) to address urgent and unmet housing needs in urban, rural and northern areas, and $1.2 billion was distributed “to distinctions-based government/partners to support members, citizens and beneficiaries” living in urban, rural and Northern areas.
The Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure said in a statement funding has been extended to the 2030-2031 fiscal year. Initial agreements in place with distinctions-based partners, the ministry said, are supporting housing needs through “planning and building new housing, renovating and retrofitting existing housing, or providing rent subsidies and related housing services.”
Indigenous Services Canada Minister Mandy Gull-Masty told CBC Indigenous she will be working closely with the housing minister and other ministers to “co-ordinate and align ourselves to respond to the needs of housing” for Indigenous communities.
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