Manitoba Liberals are pledging $15 million a year for housing construction on northern First Nations if elected.
The funding would increase in subsequent years once the budget is balanced, party leader Rana Bokhari told reporters in Winnipeg this week.
“This is our commitment to those communities that we will work with you in partnership to make sure that your communities have the housing requirements they need,” she said. “Basic necessities of life. Nobody should be struggling for that.”
Bokhari said the housing situation on Manitoba First Nations communities, including many in the North, is an embarrassment and that it isn’t good enough for the province to wait for the federal government before taking action.
“Manitoba has been facing a humanitarian crisis in our First Nations communities,” she said.
“This is a humanitarian issue and Manitobans are Manitobans are Manitobans, and the fact that we feel like it’s okay to play political football with people’s lives living just a few kilometres north, it’s unacceptable.”
Decisions about where the money would be spent would be made in consultation with leaders from communities in dire need of housing, Bokhari said.
“We’re going to get people at the table and that’s why some of the community leaders are here [at the announcement] today,” she said, “because we’re going to start that conversation about what exactly that looks like in terms of housing.”
Bokhari added that she feels Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government would be a willing partner in improving housing on First Nations.
