Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Sure. I'll jump in. Yes, we've reviewed the budget with respect to indigenous housing. As I mentioned earlier, the budget indicated that the funds were to co-develop a strategy, something that has already been done. We feel it would be a much better use of resources to actually implement an urban, rural, northern indigenous housing strategy than to further study the issue the strategy of which has already been developed.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, MP Gill, for the question. We proposed a community-led housing solution. We proposed a strategy that is “for indigenous, by indigenous” for indigenous people living in urban, rural and northern areas. What we saw in the budget yesterday was a strategy that will be under the control of CMHC.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, MP Gladu. The Parliamentary Budget Officer undertook a study of this issue. A number of studies have been completed by organizations such as ours. We know that for Ontario alone, for example, that gap is $22 billion for urban indigenous people. The Parliamentary Budget Officer indicates that the need ranges, depending on how you measure it, between $638 million and $1.4 billion per year.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  [Witness spoke in an indigenous language] [English] My name is Justin Marchand. My spirit name is Firerock. I am Métis, the CEO of Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services and chair of the indigenous caucus. I pray that all our grandmothers, grandfathers, spirits, manitou and Gitchi Manitou be with us all for this important discussion.