THUNDER BAY – Four Northern Ontario Indigenous organizations have been awarded a combined $29.7 million to help solve local housing crises.
The Reverend Tommy Beardy Memorial Wee Che He Wayo-Gamik Family Treatment Centre in Thunder Bay and Muskrat Dam are getting $10 million, the same amount being given to the Seven Generations Education Institute in Kenora.
Another $8.7 million will be distributed to the Kekekoziibii Development Centre in Kenora and $1 million will be given to the Fort Albany Women's Centre in Timmins. A fifth project, slated for the North Bay area, will be announced at a future date.
The money is part of the federal government’s $281.5-million plan to fund the creation of 3,781 housing units in northern urban, rural and remote communities, and is being distributed through the National Indigenous Collaborative Housing Inc. fund.
It’s important money, said William Kaminawash, executive director of the Reverend Tommy Beardy Memorial Family Treatment Centre.
“Everybody knows that housing has always been a tremendous need, all across the board,” Kaminawash said.
“Having worked at the Tommy Beardy Memorial Family Treatment Centre for 10 years now, we’ve had clients (who), once they graduate the program, when they go back home they actually lose their housing. We’ve had to refer clients to assistance in Dryden and Thunder Bay. Having this funding available to us, it will do a lot to helping our work and helping families heal and empowering First Nations."
NICHI was given the money by Ottawa to distribute based on its own criteria for selection and will support a total of 73 projects nationwide through the fund. On Monday, NICHI executive director John Gordon said he could immediately fund another $300 million in projects if the money was available, noting the need across Canada is that great.
“There’s an inordinate amount of power in deciding who gets funding and who doesn’t,” Gordon said, explaining it was important that a non-government group got to choose where the money would be allocated.
Indigenous Affairs minister Patty Hajdu, on hand for the announcement in Thunder Bay, said in sheer numbers, the housing units will have a considerable impact. But it’s the transfer of power from the federal government to NICHI that has her most excited.
It’s now an Indigenous-led project, with Indigenous advisors and housing experts that will ensure the money goes where it’s needed most and to work not only together, but with other levels of government, to maximize the investment.
“(It’s) in a way that the government of Canada has not done a very good job at since we’ve been doing this job,” Hajdu said.
“This is a very colonial government, with a very colonial system. Over the last nine years, we’ve been really working to figure out how we restore power and control to Indigenous Peoples, where it rightfully belongs, in matters that are deeply connected to family, to home, to nature, to culture and to identity.”
