“What rationale does the federal government have for promising only 100 housing units when thousands are desperately needed?" Lori Idlout asked Housing Minister Ahmed Hussen Thursday.
Northern housing leaders, including the N.W.T's housing minister, spoke to a federal committee Tuesday about the housing crisis in the N.W.T. and Nunavut, leaving many MPs expressing shock at its impact on Indigenous people.
Two commissioners from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission say Ottawa needs to act more urgently to respond to its Calls to Action and creating a national monument for residential school survivors would be a start.
Posted: Dec 11, 2020 5:00 AM CT | Last Updated: December 11, 2020
A file photo from May 2018. Fresh fruit are some of the most expensive items in Nunavut. A Nutrition North representative says the cost of flour after subsidies is now comparable to southern Canadian prices, because of COVID-19 funding. (Nick Murray/CBC News)
Relief funding for the COVID-19 pandemic has been effective in increasing access to food in remote northern communities but it s also revealed the true extent of food insecurity that Nunavut households face.
Because many communities are using pandemic relief funds to give out food hampers during isolation and school closures, food sales have increased in the territory, said Wayne Walsh, who oversees the Nutrition North program, during a parliamentary Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs on Dec. 8.