Jason Nichols
The 2025 Canadian federal election is over, and the Liberal Social gathering of Canada has acquired a brand new mandate from Canadians. A major facet of the Liberals’ election platform concerned a dedication to “get again into constructing houses,” with a pledge to assemble over 500,000 new houses yearly over the following ten years. There’s a important scarcity of inexpensive housing all through Canada, and that is significantly evident in lots of First Nations communities. Housing on reserves has confronted persistent underfunding because the institution of the primary reserve communities in Canada, and this neglect persists, negatively impacting well being and well-being in First Nations communities.
A 2023 report titled Closing the Infrastructure Hole by 2030, printed by the Meeting of First Nations (AFN), signifies that to fulfill the housing calls for of First Nations communities, an extra 108,803 housing items have to be constructed by 2030. The Indigenous and Northern Housing plan inside Canada’s present Nationwide Housing Technique is an effective begin, however it doesn’t go practically far sufficient to satisfy the long-standing housing wants of First Nations communities. With the brand new Liberal platform prioritizing the fast growth of inexpensive and sustainable houses, Prime Minister Mark Carney has an opportunity to start remedying a few of the historic and ongoing injustices that First Nations peoples encounter relating to housing on reserves. This may be achieved by integrating the AFN’s proposal into the Nationwide Housing Technique, offering a streamlined course of for First Nations to learn, and dealing straight with First Nations to satisfy the particular wants of every group, steering away from the paternalistic dynamics which have largely fueled the housing disaster skilled by First Nations communities all through Canada.
Throughout my MA in historical past, I researched how the Canadian settler state used housing as a device for assimilation on reserves within the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly in southern Alberta, or Treaty 7 territory. Reviewing the Liberals’ new housing technique has prompted me to replicate on my historic analysis regarding First Nations housing, and I consider there are classes that the brand new authorities can apply to keep away from the identical pitfalls which have plagued earlier governments for over a century.
Within the early 1900s, Indian Agent H.E. Sibbald, who labored for the Division of Indian Affairs (DIA), launched a program to enhance housing on the Siksika reserve. After Treaty 7 was signed in 1877, the Siksika, like different First Nations communities on the prairies, had been confined to reserves and inspired to undertake log dwellings over tipis to assimilate them into Euro-Canadian tradition and disrupt their social and cultural practices. Indigenous Peoples in Treaty 7 had combined reactions to the adoption of log houses. As an illustration, the DIA constructed a log residence for Isapo-muxika, or Crowfoot, hoping that he would embrace the Euro-style home over the tipi and encourage others to take action as nicely. Nevertheless, historian Hugh Dempsey notes that Isapo-muxika continued to desire the tipi and solely sought shelter in his log dwelling when winter arrived, and his well being declined.[1] On the flip of the 20th century, the Indigenous Peoples of Treaty 7 nonetheless most well-liked tipis to log houses. Nevertheless, with the bison, whose skins had been required to assemble tipis, practically extinct, many reluctantly made the swap.
Early 20th-century log houses on the Siksika reserve sometimes consisted of a singular room constructed from rough-hewn wooden, that includes dust flooring and a mud roof. These buildings exhibited insufficient air flow, leading to numerous well being problems, together with respiratory illnesses corresponding to tuberculosis. The unfavourable circumstances of those log houses compelled Sibbald to formulate a housing initiative geared toward enhancing dwelling circumstances on the Siksika reserve. In 1905, he proposed a house financing plan that will permit people with vital cattle as collateral and a down fee of $100 to borrow $400 from band funds for the development of a brand new residence.[2] By the conclusion of the yr, the housing program secured approval from the federal authorities, and Sibbald conveyed optimism that it might result in “an improved class of dwellings.”[3] The British Columbia Mills Timber and Buying and selling Firm designed the houses, and so they consisted of a single bed room, kitchen, and lounge, together with a modest attic.[4] Throughout the preliminary yr, two Siksika residents efficiently constructed houses, and J.A. Markle, the Alberta Inspectorate for the DIA, characterised them as “comfy and sanitary.”[5] Regardless of the completion of two houses, there isn’t a substantial proof indicating that the plan progressed additional. The proprietors, James Appekoke and Paul Little Walker, had been late on their first mortgage installment as a consequence of their cattle being deemed unfit for slaughter to generate the required funds, which can have prompted the DIA to cancel the housing program.[6] Moreover, it’s believable that no further people met or expressed curiosity in assembly the restrictive circumstances required to assemble houses below this system.
The difficulty of underfunding housing inside First Nations communities has been a persistent systemic concern, however how can a 120-year-old housing program present classes for as we speak? The very first thing price noting is that the newly elected federal authorities should make sure that future First Nations housing initiatives obtain satisfactory funding. This necessitates long-term governmental funding to successfully tackle the housing scarcity and improve current housing circumstances in First Nations communities. In accordance with Sibbald’s housing plan, all financing for loans was to return from band funds, with no funding supplied by the federal government. It held that Indigenous Peoples should be self-sufficient, and the federal government was not inclined to concern ‘hand-outs,’ regardless of its systematic efforts to curtail financial alternatives for First Nations peoples. The Canadian state continues to perpetuate the continuing housing scarcity by way of a paternalistic relationship with First Nations communities. The AFN stories that it’s going to require $135.1 billion to bridge the housing hole in First Nations communities by the yr 2030. Whereas this determine is substantial, it has reached this extent primarily because of the federal authorities’s historic underfunding and neglect of housing inside reserve communities since their institution. It is going to take a daring and multi-year monetary dedication by the Liberals to satisfy the required housing wants.
Sibbald’s housing plan imposed overly restrictive necessities for these wanting to construct houses, creating excessive obstacles for many Siksika Nation residents. A $100 deposit and cattle as collateral excluded many. Furthermore, loans got here from band funds, putting all monetary threat on the band if defaults occurred. Financial circumstances in lots of First Nations haven’t improved in comparison with broader Canadian settler society because the early twentieth century. Thus, for housing initiatives to succeed, the Liberal authorities should keep away from pointless obstacles and crimson tape. The federal government should guarantee housing wants usually are not hindered by forms, underfunding, anti-competitive practices, and exclusionary applications which have troubled First Nations housing.
Lastly, the Liberal authorities should permit First Nations communities to direct their very own housing methods. Sibbald acknowledged the necessity for higher housing on the Siksika reserve however didn’t embrace the group in selections about design, builders, supplies, or funding. He created the plan and selected candidates primarily based solely on his standards, excluding the group’s enter on their wants. The DIA’s paternalistic strategy decided what was deemed to be within the ‘finest curiosity’ of First Nations Peoples relating to housing. In 2021, Canada dedicated to implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), with a part of Article 23 emphasizing Indigenous Peoples’ rights to take part in housing growth and handle it by way of their establishments when possible. It is going to be crucial that the Liberals proceed to uphold and acknowledge UNDRIP relating to housing initiatives by First Nations communities.
A 1973 documentary by the Nationwide Movie Board highlights the Kainai group’s ingenuity in addressing housing wants by way of the institution of Kainai Industries, an Indigenous-led enterprise that manufactured prefabricated houses for the group and the better Canadian market. Kainai Industries not solely supplied important housing items but in addition decreased unemployment, using dozens of group members at its peak. Regardless of working till the early Nineteen Nineties, Kainai Industries was not with out its challenges, some because of the colonial state itself. The DIA confronted allegations that it sought to bankrupt Kainai Industries by selling a competing settler prefabricated housing enterprise. Kainai Industries serves as a reminder of the fractured relationship and mistrust that has existed between First Nations peoples and the colonial state. Any new housing initiatives for First Nations reserves ought to emphasize collaboration, partnership, and good religion with all authorities ranges.
The AFN’s infrastructure report ought to mark the start, not the top, of First Nations’ involvement in housing on reserves. If Mark Carney and the Liberals are severe about reconciliation and enhancing housing for all Canadians, First Nations peoples ought to have an equal seat on the desk, figuring out what that course of will appear to be and the way their communities might be straight concerned. The Liberals have been given a fourth consecutive time period, one thing unusual in Canadian politics. The federal government should work proactively, collaboratively, and respectfully, whereas studying from the previous to make sure First Nations communities are a big a part of the federal government’s daring and impressive housing plan.
Jason Nichols, a Settler Canadian residing in Treaty 18, has an MA in Historical past from Lakehead College and is starting his PhD Historical past within the fall at York College, specializing in settler colonialism in Canada. Comply with him on Bluesky.
[1] Hugh Dempsey, Crowfoot: Chief of the Blackfeet (Halifax: Formac Publishing Firm Restricted, 2017), 208.
[2] H.E. Sibbald to J.D. Maclean, 5 September 1905, file 163163, vol. 3983, RG10, Library and Archives Canada (LAC).
[3] Orders in Council, 29 December 1905., H.E. Sibbald to J.D. Maclean, 7 July 1906, file 163163, vol. 3983, RG10, LAC.
[4] Blueprints for inside, n.d. file 163163, vol. 3983, RG 10, LAC.
[5] Canada, Annual Report of the Division of Indian Affairs 1906. Report by J.A. Markle, Alberta Inspectorate, 183.
[6] H.E. Sibbald to J.D. Maclean, 17 January 1907, file 163163, vol. 3983, RG10, LAC.
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