44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 27, 2022 02:00PM
- Apr/27/22 2:30:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what the Conservative Party members are making very clear is that they do not want to talk about investments in child care. They do not want to talk about how to close the infrastructure gap between indigenous and non-indigenous communities. They do not want to talk about investments in green infrastructure. They do not want to talk about making sure that the wealthiest pay their fair share. They definitely do not want to talk about protecting a woman's right to choose. While they focus on personal attacks on me, we will stay focused on the things that matter to Canadians.
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- Apr/27/22 2:50:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, once again, we see that the Conservatives are desperate to talk about anything but the issues that are important to Canadians' everyday lives.
They are not talking about investments in child care, how to close the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous communities, investments in green infrastructure or how to ensure that the wealthy pay their fair share. They simply want to make personal attacks rather than focus on the issues that actually matter to Canadians.
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- Apr/27/22 3:13:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country for his hard work on protecting the environment. Advancing the transition to indigenous climate leadership is central to addressing climate change. It includes continuing to support indigenous, rural and remote communities by investing in indigenous-led and indigenous-delivered solutions to climate change and the transition to clean energy.
It is why our strengthened climate plan invests $300 million to advance our commitment to ensure communities relying on diesel have access to clean, renewable and reliable energy by 2030.
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- Apr/27/22 3:14:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people are not safe as a result of successive Liberal and Conservative governments putting the privileges of big oil corporations over our safety and human rights.
We saw this in the budget, which gives $2.6 billion to big oil, but zero new funding to implement all the calls for justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. This is disgraceful.
Will the government commit to increased investment to end this crisis of violence?
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- Apr/27/22 4:22:12 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, I rise today to speak about housing in my constituency. This budget has an entire first chapter on housing, and it offers the classic promises of modest levels of funding to the three territorial governments. Housing is not a new issue. Although the housing crisis in Nunavut has been raised in Parliament, there may be still little understanding or knowledge of what this crisis means on the ground.
I will continue the work started by my predecessor Mumilaaq Qaqqaq. I am more convinced than ever that safe, affordable housing is the key for Nunavut and all indigenous communities to thrive. Reconciliation takes a full government effort. We cannot shuffle it into a specialized corner.
A basic everyday reality in Nunavut is that Nunavummiut do not have access to many housing units in their own communities, while imported federal employees do.
Across Nunavut and in many indigenous communities, federal employees are given the benefit of an allocated housing unit with their job. To hire and retain employees, Canada has completely opted out of the general housing supply and has built or leased its own units, exclusive to its employees, which results in federal employees avoiding the experience of the housing crisis themselves.
Nunavut communities have rows of boarded-up federal employee housing units. The federal employees have been moved years ago to newer units in newer parts of the community. This means that every day on their way to school, children in Iqaluit and other communities see and walk past empty federal housing units. I do not understand how we can talk about equity and fairness when I think about people like Iqittuq, who told me that in that her household there are 15 people in a four-bedroom unit: three adults, each with their own family.
Why is it acceptable to have this level of overcrowded housing and still permit so many housing units, which are directly controlled by Canada, to sit empty in so many indigenous communities? Does anyone in authority know how many of these unoccupied houses Canada controls? What is the financial and the social cost of allowing 40-year-old units to be empty when Nunavummiut are cramped into 60-year-old housing that is in worse condition? Why is this not a budget issue?
An Inuk woman in Pond Inlet told me, “There are so many family members in one overcrowded house, so many families that have been on waiting lists for years, to move into any available house. Housing authorities need more resources.”
In this budget, we see the government only beginning to demonstrate an awareness of the life-altering need Canadians have for access to suitable and affordable housing. The issue is largely presented as generational. The up-and-coming generation of Canadians are struggling to access what much of Canada has assumed was available: appropriate, affordable and diverse housing options.
Welcome to our reality. The reality for most of indigenous Canada is that housing is a multi-generational, multi-family and all-encompassing crisis. It impacts health, schooling and employment.
From filling those empty federal units to supporting indigenous governance, there are many ways the federal government can directly support the easing of the housing crisis in Nunavut. It is the Nunavut communities that know what the potential solutions are. They know the seasons, the infrastructure limitations, the families in most need and the resources required to go beyond what was announced in budget 2022 weeks ago.
Over and over, we hear dollars announced, as we saw on page 41 of this budget, but communities do not see changes on the ground. Families like Peter Kilabuk’s, who is retired and raising grandchildren with complex medical needs in Pangnirtung, do not see the changes. He told me that past housing promises have not reached his community. When I met with him, he asked me where the $300 million for housing that was announced before was. He does not see it.
Announcing numbers is relatively easy. Impacting on the ground requires a whole rethink. Clearly, what we are doing is not working. Do we do more of the same, or do we look to the roots of the issues, such as financing, taxation, travel costs, seasonal out-of-community workers and the abrasive transient work camps?
I was recently in the communities of Cambridge Bay and Kugluktuk. Both communities also identified these issues. Indeed, housing has been a crisis across all Nunavut communities. While I loved the warm welcome in both communities, I saw around town the many broken windows requiring replacement, and many boarded-up, empty units. Of course they should be repaired and renovated, but it is not simple. Access to supply is incredibly limited.
No Nunavut community has road access. In any given year, marshalling materials takes months and access to capital. The open water shipping season each year is days to weeks long, up to a maximum of four months. Most communities may get sealift once or twice per season. In that season, bulk food, resupply materials for housing and new infrastructure are all delivered, and most communities do not have a dock or a harbour.
Members should take a moment to compare this to their home communities. If they need to repair the back steps or replace a window, how far is it to the nearby building centre to get materials? Have they ever considered having to fly in an electrician or plumber from 1,000 kilometres away to maintain their homes?
In Coral Harbour, I was told that Inuit are capable, skilled and knowledgeable. Inuit must not be only employed as janitors, receptionists or security personnel. Even if Inuit are not academically educated, Inuit must be paid for the skills they do have as experts in our communities. We need to recognize skills and develop them from the ground up. Fly-in solutions are, at best, stopgap and intrusive.
Inuit need to be part of the solutions and integrated into the decision-making and to be the lead when building new units and in community planning. How is this any different from other remote and indigenous communities? Does anyone need solutions dropped on them from afar, or do we need to see needed structures and programming that support community goals and efforts?
During my recent travels in Nunavut, I spent time in Naujaat with renowned elder Donat Milortok. What I gathered from Milortok is that individuals in the communities know what the solutions are. Canada must allow the solutions to be shared solutions. We must ensure that in this budget cycle the federal government stops ignoring the calls for a complete rethink of housing for indigenous communities.
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- Apr/27/22 4:31:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my friend's thoughts regarding indigenous housing and housing in general. In Winnipeg North, I represent one of the higher percentages of indigenous people, probably somewhere in the neighbourhood of 20,000 to 25,000 people. It breaks my heart when we see the type of housing they have, and it is one of the reasons why I believe that, as a national government, we have to recognize that we do have a role to play. That is why we have invested literally tens of millions of dollars in Winnipeg alone with regard to emergency housing shelter, the Main Street Project, investing in and encouraging provincial governments and municipalities to also come to the table.
This is where my question lies. Would the member not agree that, as a national government, we can show leadership by investing in and generating ideas, but we also need to get provincial and other stakeholders, such as indigenous communities, which have demonstrated incredible leadership on the issue, to continue to work together to try to resolve this problem?
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- Apr/27/22 4:32:30 p.m.
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Qujannamiik, Uqaqtittiji.
I think the member should listen to my statement more intently, because my recommendation is that the federal government needs to listen to the communities. The communities are the ones that have been offering solutions. They have been ignored long enough, and it is the communities that need to be heard when solutions are being provided. It is the federal government that needs to listen more intently so that it can show real reconciliation when it comes to providing solutions that will impact and improve indigenous people's lives.
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- Apr/27/22 4:34:21 p.m.
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Qujannamiik, Uqaqtittiji.
I have been quite interested in the Conservatives' approach to addressing climate change, to addressing indigenous issues, to addressing what is going on in Europe. They have taken such a different approach to how we as Canadians try to support each other.
In my focus, when I decided to talk about housing, I needed to do so because indigenous housing is such a major issue. With most of our communities still operating on diesel, with diesel-operated energy, we need to find ways to make sure that renewable energy is the source of the transition that we move toward.
Whatever positions the Conservatives have made, I have not been able to agree with them because of the foundation that they have been trying to use to misinform and disinform a lot of Canadians.
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- Apr/27/22 7:18:01 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his speech, but what I did not get was an answer to why the Privy Council did the polling in the first place and a commitment that the government is not going to cut services.
I want to work with my colleague so that we can expand services for Canada Post, like postal banking, which is a huge opportunity for rural and remote communities that do not have financial institutions. Many of them are leaving smaller communities despite record profits in the financial sector for the big banks. In these communities, we are leaving the most vulnerable susceptible to payday loans and businesses that are making a profit off people cashing their paycheques. There is an opportunity here, especially for indigenous people in the north, in particular in Nunavut, where we know banking is a huge challenge for many rural communities. It is a real, true opportunity for reconciliation.
I hope my colleague will work with me, and I hope he will commit to protecting Canada Post, its workers and its services.
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