Youth empowerment is among the many key focuses of this yr’s First Nations Housing Convention in Thunder Bay, Ont., as stakeholders proceed conversations about the best way to enhance housing situations in distant communities.
Organizers of the twenty second annual convention say it is the biggest and longest-standing occasion centered on First Nations housing throughout the nation. The three-day convention brings neighborhood leaders, trade members and authorities officers collectively to debate methods to deal with housing challenges in First Nations.
“It is like a one-stop store in that sense of getting folks collectively and studying collectively,” stated Clarence Meekis, a member of the convention’s organizing committee who works for the tribal council Keewaytinook Okimakanak. He’s a member of Deer Lake First Nation.
About one in six Indigenous folks in Canada lived in overcrowded housing that was thought of unsuitable in 2021, based on a Statistics Canada report.
Clarence Meekis is a member of the organizing committee for the First Nations Housing Convention. He works for the tribal council Keewaytinook Okimakanak and is a member of Deer Lake First Nation. (Sarah Legislation/CBC)
“Housing by no means goes out of fashion. The wants by no means change. However our aim is to empower folks and communities, residence occupants, neighborhood management, that they’ll nonetheless present world-class housing for his or her neighborhood members,” stated Meekis.
Funding is likely one of the fundamental challenges of getting sufficient housing to First Nations, he stated, together with buying high quality supplies, contractors and repair suppliers “that may do the work proper.”
“Constructing code is one factor, and I feel there’s quite a bit you’ll be able to take note of in high quality that is over and above constructing code requirements — and that is our aim, is to verify they get the most effective out there in our communities,” Meekis stated.
The theme of this yr’s convention, which started Tuesday and wraps up on Thursday, is exploring challenges and empowering sustainability.
Creating more healthy houses and profession choices
Greater than a dozen college students from distant First Nations who moved to Thunder Bay for highschool participated in a Builders Problem on Wednesday.
Superstar handyman Jon Eakes led quite a few demonstrations earlier than college students examined their expertise in demolition, restructuring, vinyl flooring and flooring base moulding.
Jon Eakes says the scholars have been partnered with grownup contributors of the convention for the Builders Problem, however the college students largely took the lead. (Sarah Legislation/CBC)
College students have been arrange at 4 work stations in a big convention room on the Valhalla Lodge and Convention Centre, the place that they had 20 minutes to finish every activity at hand.
Eakes stated an enormous focus was on mould remediation, a typical problem in First Nations housing in Canada.
“It is all of the steps to go from, ‘I’ve acquired an issue,’ to ‘I’ve acquired a more healthy home that may keep away from that downside sooner or later,'” he stated.
General, he stated, the aim was to indicate college students the best way to efficiently full their very own residence enchancment initiatives, to allow them to convey these expertise again to their communities and doubtlessly be impressed to make a profession out of them.
“Their complete esteem was rising up when it comes to, ‘I can do it. I may even present folks the best way to do it,'” Eakes stated. “That leads in direction of the chance that they’ll maintain their homes in higher situation themselves.”
Sienna Wabasse, a Grade 11 scholar from Nibinamik First Nation who’s also referred to as Summer time Beaver, is finishing a welding co-op placement in school.
“By means of that, I simply realized a lot about myself,” Wabasse stated.
She stated she enjoys utilizing energy instruments and dealing with a group to get initiatives finished, and is contemplating a profession within the trades.
“I really feel very fortunate to be right here. This can be a very nice expertise,” she stated.
For Grade 12 scholar Landon Yellowhead, who can be from Nibinamik, the convention’s commerce present additionally gave him the prospect to community with exhibitors about moving into an apprenticeship after he graduates.
The Builders Problem is an effective way to offer college students pre-work expertise, he stated, and he encourages different younger folks to grab related alternatives.
“Do not be afraid to leap at each probability you get to expertise one thing new, even when it is scary, as a result of worry solely holds you again,” stated Yellowhead.
