Ontario First Nations struggle to meet demand for housing; gap growing
The Ontario First Nations Steering Committee on Housing (OFNSCH) is a group of First Nations leadership tasked by the Ontario Chiefs in Assembly to focus on housing issues.
In a meeting today the OFNSCH expressed its strong support for the people and leadership of Attawapiskat. The OFNSCH want to bring focus to the following issues:
The Federal Government has unilaterally imposed third party management as a way of deflecting criticism from themselves to the community members.
Attawapiskat is not an isolated situation. The challenges faced by this community are repeated in multiple First Nations especially in the northern and remote communities.
The Federal Government has been aware of the issues in Attawapiskat and other northern and remote communities since the 1960’s.
The Aboriginal Affairs And Northern Development Canada (AANDC) –Ontario Region, capital budget is insufficient to meet the needs of First Nations. An Infrastructure Gap Study recently identified an 8.6 billion dollar need for the 134 First Nations in Ontario over the next 20 years. In addition the Federal Governments own projections call for a 40 million dollar reduction to the region’s major capital budget over the next five years.
Minor capital allocations in Ontario are supposed to assist First Nations in housing and the maintenance of capital assets are nowhere near sufficient to meet the needs. The OFNSCH supports the Nishnawbe-Aski Nation (NAN) and Mushkegowuk leadership in efforts to educate the Canadian public on stark realities of life in northern communities.
As signatories to Treaty 9, the Province of Ontario also has responsibilities to provide funding. The OFNSCH wants the Federal and Ontario Governments to address these issues. | 
