Metis decry cuts to housing funding

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The Metis National Council condemned the federal government last week for recent budget cuts that will eliminate funds to Native housing projects.

In a press conference held May 11, council president Gerald Morin blasted Ottawa for failing to consult with Metis housing authorities on the proposed cuts.

"It's a real insult, a real slap on the face to our people to announce the cutbacks without consultation," he said. "It ignores the federal government's role to meet the needs of the poor. It is happening at a time when the need is greatest for adequate housing in Canada."

The federal government announced last month it was cutting funds for Native urban and rural housing projects in its 1993/94 budget. An estimated $2 billion in financial assistance is scheduled to be cut off Jan. 1, 1994.

Those cuts will have a direct, negative impact on the economy by reducing home construction and building supply markets and increasing unemployment in all sectors of the house building industry, Morin said. Federal funding supports 70 per cent of the Metis Nation's housing programs. That burden will now have to be met by the provinces.

"This is a direct assault on our organizations," said Metis Housing and Economic Development Minister Ron Swain. "Why are we being targeted out of all other Canadians?"

Funding for housing programs in 1991 was only $68 million, he said. That dropped to just over $50 million in 1992.

Figures for this year have not yet been calculated, but Swain estimated the amounts are expected to be down even further.

"Amounts per capita have been declining for several years," he said.

Ottawa is not specifically targeting the Metis Nation in the cutbacks, said Canada Mortgage and Housing commission spokesman Robert Lajoie. Federal budget forecasts allow no new funding for any housing projects after 1993.

In fact, he said, funding for programs like the Metis' Residential Repair Assistance, Emergency Repairs, and Rural Native Housing projects have been on the increase for years.

"They've been going up every year as far back as I can remember," he said. "Planned expenditures were less than previously anticipated, but everyone got their fair share."

50 per cent of last year's revenues for housing projects went to the Rural Native Housing Program as planned, he said.

"It was 50 per cent of less, but that's still 50 per cent."

The commission is, however, looking at ways to support social housing projects in the wake of the cutbacks, Lajoie said.

Ottawa could save as much as $100 million annually if more non-profit and other social housing institutions borrowed money from private banks instead of the federal government. That money could then be used to support the housing programs and could get private loans.

The commission is also considering the provinces, territories and organizations like the Native Council of Canada as alternative sources of funding, Lajoie said.

A spokesman for the Alberta department of Municipal Affairs said, however, the province has no plans to take over funding for the half-dozen Metis programs as long as they are under review by Ottawa.

Generating income from other sources will prove difficult, said Swain, because money for housing projects is often perceived by the public as charity.

"Social housing is viewed by the Canadian public as giving the poor a straight contribution. But a place to live is not a pie-in-the-sky dream. The interests of Canadians is adequate housing. This issue goes right to the heart of our people."

The council first began its urban housing program in 1972. The rural housing projects began two years later.

Since 1986, 1,700 new housing units have been built, over half of them for non-Aboriginal clients, Swain said. But a backlog still exists.

Some 433 people are currently on a waiting list for affordable housing in Edmonton and 700 people throughout Alberta are waiting for renovations.

In the meantime, the council plans to talk to housing amd consructions associations across the country to garner support for their lobby in Ottawa at the end of May.