Assembly of First Nations national chief calls for action following reports on housing, policing
Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak says Auditor General's reports 'provide a clear path forward'
The Assembly of First Nations national chief is calling for action from the federal government following two reports from the Auditor General released Tuesday showing continued shortcomings in Indigenous housing and policing.
The report on housing in First Nations communities referred to 2021 Census data showing that people in First Nations communities are four times more likely to live in crowded housing and six times more likely to live in housing in need of major repair than non-Indigenous people.
"These reports provide a clear path forward for the changes urgently needed," said Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak.
The report, which focused on on-reserve housing in the provinces, says there has been no meaningful improvement since 2015 in housing conditions. It cited a 2021 Assembly of First Nations report that estimated more than 55,000 new units were needed and 81,000 units need repairs.
In 2019, the Trudeau government pledged to close the housing gap in First Nations communities by 2030, but the report says Indigenous Services Canada and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation are not on track to support First Nations to meet this goal.
Woodhouse Nepinak said she thinks the government is falling short of the 2030 deadline.
"The housing crisis and infrastructure gap in our communities is a main driver of [First Nations] homelessness," she said.
Jamie-lee Wesley and her husband recently moved back to her home community of Gitsegukla First Nation, about 700 kilometres north of Vancouver, for her husband's job.
The couple is living with her parents.
"It's not the best situation, but it could be worse," said Wesley, who is Gitxsan and Tsimshian.
She said she is happy to be home but living in her parents' five-bedroom house with six people can get tricky, and other siblings sometimes come and stay as well.
"We're just trying to find other options, but being in such a rural part of B.C., it's kind of sparse," said Wesley.
Wesley said a housing waitlist with her First Nation is long and she hasn't been able to get an application.
Money going unspent in policing
Another Auditor General report was critical of the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program — a cost-shared program between the federal and provincial and territorial governments created in 1991, meant to improve the safety of First Nations and Inuit communities.
The report found that Public Safety Canada, the federal department overseeing the program, "did not work in partnership with Indigenous communities to provide" policing services tailored to their needs. The report said the RCMP can't fully staff the positions for which it receives funding under the program's agreements, leaving First Nations and Inuit communities underserved.
The report also found that $13 million in program funds for the 2022-23 fiscal year went unspent and that Public Safety Canada was "at risk" of not disbursing over $45 million in funds for the 2023-2024 fiscal year.
"By not fulfilling some of their responsibilities under the program, Public Safety Canada's and the RCMP's actions are not aligned with building trust with First Nations and Inuit communities and with the federal government's commitment to truth and reconciliation," Auditor General Karen Hogan said in a statement.
Woodhouse Nepinak said the current model isn't working.
"Reform of First Nations policing is essential to ensure public safety and First Nations communities which are suffering under the current funding formula," she said.
Unspent money from the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program should be distributed to self-administered First Nations police forces, said Edward Lennard Busch, executive director of the First Nations Chiefs of Police Association.
Busch is a member of the Kahkewistahaw First Nation in Saskatchewan, and a former chief of police for the File Hills First Nation Police Service.
"It is kind of disappointing to see all that money go unspent when there is so much need in other places," said Busch.
Busch said often money allocated through federal programs is for particular purposes, like RCMP positions in communities, and then piles up if those positions aren't filled.
"We all have the same goal," he said.
"We really want to have the best policing services that we can offer to our communities."
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