Sagkeeng First Nation denied crucial women’s shelter

A lot that would have been used to build a crucial women’s shelter on Sagkeeng First Nation will continue to sit empty after the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation denied the proposal.

The First Nation currently has the highest rate of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, with community leaders saying they have been working to address violence and support healing in the community, with this women’s centre planned on being a big part of that, but say CMHC denied their proposal without much clarification

“Our proposal was a class C and they wanted a class D and they didn’t really clarify what that meant,” said Tania Bunn, a Councillor for Sagkeeng First Nation.

The First Nation believes the denial hinders grassroots efforts to protect and empower First Nations women and girls by disregarding UNDRIP principals and directly undermines the National Inquiry Call to Justice 4.6 which urges advocate funding for community-based services addressing violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SGBTQQIA people.

“We should have got a second chance at meeting their needs and what they wanted us to put in the proposal,” said Bunn.

Deputy Grand Chief Betsy Kennedy highlighted the need for centres like these more than ever.

“We need this to help our members because it has always been difficult and having them leave to live in urban areas is difficult,” said Deputy Grand Chief Kenndy.

Currently, the CMHC’s Shelter Initiative for Indigenous Women and Children allocates $44.8 million for 10 on-reserve shelters across Canada and two shelters in territories, while the Women and Children Shelter and Transitional Housing initiative provides 250 million for general shelters

“There’s a lot of facilities being built in the city and money flowing to the city while there’s not for the First Nations,” said Bunn.

While the CMHC could not give specifics on this application, they did acknowledge to CityNews they “received more applications than could be funded through these two initiatives with the funding available.”

“In cases where an application could not be advanced under these initiatives, CMHC will always offer to work with applicants to look for other funding sources through other National Housing Strategy initiatives. This includes the Affordable Housing Fund, which provides capital funding to create shelters and transitional homes on an ongoing basis and prioritizes Indigenous applications.”

Sagkeeng is demanding the government take responsibility and action for the denial, and hope their Women’s Centre will be approved.