aboriginal housing Archives

News May 22, 2017

Remembering our true past when celebrating Canada’s 150 years

Canada is gearing up to celebrate 150 years this summer with several events planned across the country. Fireworks, parades, a ‘ready, set, fire’ event where participants will have the opportunity to shoot a vintage gun in Nova Scotia, and a festival on the confederation bridge in P.E.I. are few of many events planned to celebrate Canada as a unified country. It leaves me to wonder though, what are we really celebrating?

Canada — at that time made up of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia — became a confederation on July 1, 1867. The remaining provinces joined over time, with Nunavut as the last territory in 1999. Regardless of the specific timeline of when Canada became a completely unified country, its history has not always been perfect. The destruction of aboriginal cultures since confederation is a very dark part of Canada’s past, but nonetheless must be recognized during this celebration.

Canada is as much a country of amazing feats, as a product of colonization. Residential schools, the destruction of languages, culture, and land, and the continuing ignorance of the plight of many native peoples in our country are few of the many hurts aboriginals have suffered.

On Canada’s 150^th birthday, take a moment to pause and meditate on the complex challenges that aboriginals have experienced as Canadian citizens and as a culture. Lead singer of Tragically Hip, Gord Downie, is certainly leading this push to recognize Canadian aboriginal culture, recently putting on a Secret Path performance that focuses on indigenous issues in Canada. He also announced a project for restaurants and public spaces to dedicate legacy rooms to aboriginal issues across the country as a way to celebrate 150 years.

Want to learn more? The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation opened in 2015, and demonstrates the history of aboriginal affairs in Canada. There are millions of records of violence towards Canada’s indigenous peoples and is a worthy place to visit in honour of Canada’s 150^th year celebration.

At the same time, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is making efforts to recognize native issues to celebrate 150 years. Funding of $1.8 million was announced for the Reconciliation in Action: A National Engagement Strategy and focuses on reconciliation efforts. Indspire is a speaking tour that represents exceptional indigenous youth and the government gave 200,000 dollars to the initiative. Support of these projects is included in the overall budget for the 150 years celebration, but there is much left for the Federal government to remediate relations with Canadian aboriginals.

Canada has been a confederation for 150 years, but has been home to aboriginals for much longer. It is important to take a moment to pay our respects to the true forefathers and foremothers of our country, and remember the true history of Canada, including the past we are ashamed of.

What's Hot December 14, 2016

Celebrating Women: Chynna Howard

Chynna Howard is a defining example of what is possible when courage and selflessness are the primary qualities of a person’s make-up. This millennial woman is going to change lives with her accomplishments, and has already made an integral space for herself in Edmonton’s affordable housing community.

Howard, 27, is tackling the housing crisis head on through the founding of ‘Jill’s Place’, a rooming house located in Edmonton that she named after her mom. The rooming house will help homeless women that are in desperate need of housing in the city’s core, and is set to open in January 2017. While most people feel powerless to change the homeless crisis in Canada, Howard’s absolute selflessness is nothing short of mouth-dropping.

Howard started working in housing as a social worker at the Bissell Centre, a non-profit that provides a variety of services for the homeless, working for the outreach housing team in Edmonton. She began to notice a gap for women looking for housing in inner-city Edmonton and decided to tackle the issue herself. “The waitlists for housing are ridiculous. I was finding that these women didn’t have enough money and couldn’t find housing just for women,” Howard says. “They didn’t fit under the ‘domestic’ umbrella and didn’t want to be in a shelter. There was a lot of discrimination finding a roommate due to being aboriginal and homeless.”

Jill’s Place will provide a clean and safe home to women who are homeless in downtown Edmonton, and will help marginalized women with a place to live. Howard plans on using her skills as a social worker to help women in the home meet basic needs such as meal planning and groceries. She is also considering starting a crowdfunding campaign to help fund a welcome package for each woman that would include a towel, and other products. “I’m trying to benefit inner city women by providing safe and clean rooms. I know it is a really tough work, we need to provide clean and safe rooming homes,” Howard says. “I can fill out a rent report for them [the women who need help with rent living in the house] and take it to Alberta Works. For the most part, it will be a home. There will be a resource room with internet and a phone.”

Howard also decided to purchase the rooming house as a way to honour her dad’s memory, a high school teacher from Kelowna who passed away from cancer in 2014. “When he passed away, I was left money from his pension. I thought this would be the perfect way to use and honour that. It never felt like my money so I’m glad I found a way to honour it. I use everything he taught me to make this community better,” Howard says. “I wanted to make sure my dad’s legacy is carried on. People wonder how I’m able to financially do this. I’d give it back if I had him, but it isn’t that way so I will do this.”

In honour of her dad’s memory, Howard began the annual Clyde Howard Memorial Bursary intended for a female student in the Okanagan area entering post-secondary education.

Howard also happens to be a great artist and hopes to integrate an art studio into the rooming house for the women to use. “ I really like making art that has a message and makes you think,” Howard says. “I want to start making art that reflects this community. They also have an art walk in Edmonton and the women could show their work.”

Shadow Puppets and a Rogue Imagination. Artwork by Chynna Howard.

Howard is also an avid reader. She is currently reading “Starlight Tour” by Susanne Reber and Robert Renaud, the story of Neil Stonechild and the ‘Starlight Tours’ in Saskatoon. Howard claims it is a must-read for all Canadians. She enjoys listening to Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald in the midst of a busy life.

When I met Howard, I had this feeling that she was one of those beautiful people that seem to be put on the planet to make it a better place. I had once heard the term ‘indigo child’ used to explain people who have an almost ethereal power to rid our society temporarily of its ugliness, and leave it with just a little more beauty. That is most definitely Chynna Howard and the future success of ‘Jill’s Place’ will surely help many women in need.

Politics July 26, 2016

First Nations housing crisis may have a sustainable solution

Imagine living in a house without running water and having to share your room with five or more people. A fire ignites in the kitchen and takes over the home. There are no fire hydrants nearby. The fire consumes the house and takes those five lives with it.

Unfortunately, this is a reality and it is happening in our own province. The Pikangikum reserve in Northern Ontario suffered a huge loss in March 2016 when nine people were killed in a fire contributed by unliveable homes and a severe lack of resources. The First Nations in Northern Ontario are experiencing an affordable housing crisis and the conditions are appalling. According to Statistics Canada, 29 per cent of Aboriginal Canadians live in houses that need repair and 45 per cent of First Nations live in homes on reserves that need repairs.

To help the First Nations build affordable housing, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised $2.6 billion during his electoral campaign in October 2015. After the federal budget was released in March, it appears that campaign promise will not be fulfilled unless the liberal government is re-elected in 2019. The budget for First Nations is spread out over four years, and over half of the $2.6 billion is back-ended, with $647 million in 2019 and $801 promised in 2020 after elections.

In short, the First Nations are being put on the back burner yet again. Living in isolated reserves in locations as far as 600 km north of Thunder Bay, it is easy to ignore these suffering populations. Affordable housing often lacks materials that last, and the conditions of the dilapidated homes have increased as years have passed without repairs. The allocation of funds into various First Nations reserves doesn’t tackle affordable housing strategy and it is expensive to build and transfer materials so far north, which leaves people without a way to fix their homes in remote places.

Fortunately, an environmentally-friendly company is taking the problem seriously. Earthship Biotecture has launched an initiative to build a sustainable home in the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve 100 km south-west of Toronto. The company is covering some of the costs, along with thousands of dollars raised through fundraising.

Earthship builds sustainable homes around the world for people in need, and upon hearing of the First Nations housing crisis, set off to build a home in Ontario. Owner Michael Reynolds has built self-sustaining homes out of recycled materials for 45 years. The home in Grand River will use recycled tires, have solar panels and a cistern to collect rainwater. It will hopefully be the first of many sustainable homes for the First Nations in Ontario. Tires are commonly used in Earthship homes and create sturdy and well-done walls.

Toronto Mayor John Tory took a personal trip to Big Trout Lake, a reserve 2500 km north to learn more about First Nations culture on the weekend of July 15th. Thirty per cent of Toronto’s shelter system is used by First Nation’s men and women. Tory reported returning with a better understanding of indigenous cultures, and advocated on behalf of reconciliation for First Nations in Canada.

This particular housing crisis is gaining public attention from non-profits and all levels of government, but more needs to be done. The federal government needs to keep its budget promises and even invest in building more sustainable homes in partnership with companies such as Earthship. The new house in Grand River is a first step, and hopefully many more of these projects will pop up after the construction of the Earthship’s first Canadian home is completed.