Background
First Nations’ housing in Canada has been a story about government, oversight, layers of regulations, inadequate budgets, ineffective programs, loss of control, family and social disruption, ill health, and poverty. Houses have become objects of shame and frustration for many of the occupants. The gap between living conditions on First Nations and the rest of Canada is well documented—all the while successive governments have promised, one after another, to close that gap.
In April 2003, the Report of the Auditor General of Canada stated, “Poor housing on reserves has a negative effect on the health, education, and overall social conditions of First Nations individuals and communities.” But the Auditor General was simply stating what First Nations have always known—too many people on reserves live in substandard housing with inadequate infrastructure services. While there has been improvement since that report, change has been slow and arduous.
In 2016, the Honourable Carolyn Bennett, Minister of CrownIndigenous Relations and Northern Affairs told the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) Chiefs’ Committee on Housing and Infrastructure (CCoHI) that the government of Canada was committed to making significant change. The minister was not just talking about building more houses; she highlighted the need for the government to transfer its authority to First Nations-led housing and infrastructure institutions.
In September 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed his government’s commitment and said, “Over time, programs and services will increasingly be delivered by Indigenous Peoples.… Indigenous Peoples will decide how they wish to represent and organize themselves.” His government acted on his commitment by splitting INAC into two separate ministries: Crown Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC) and Indigenous Services Canada (ISC).
Later that year ISC Minister Jane Philpott told the AFN Special Chiefs’ Assembly, “The goal is that, in all sectors, we aim for the design, delivery and control of services to be led by Indigenous peoples for Indigenous peoples. When that is achieved, there should no longer be a need for our department in the federal government.… This might be the first government department ever created specifically with its own obsolescence as its eventual goal.”
Under the Department of Indigenous Services Act, enacted July 15, 2019, ISC has a mandate to “take the appropriate measures to give effect to the gradual transfer to Indigenous organizations of departmental responsibilities with respect to the development and provision of (those) services”. In detailing ‘Indigenous SelfDetermined Services’ ISCs’ Departmental Plan 2020-2021 notes that “Enhancing Indigenous control over the design and delivery of services is critical to realizing a future in which the Department’s existence is no longer required; a stated objective in the enabling legislation that created Indigenous Services Canada.”
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