OTTAWA -- Affordable housing providers say they are growing worried that millions of dollars in long-promised federal funding won't be available in time to help groups that support off-reserve Indigenous people.
The Liberals earmarked $225 million over 11 years in their second budget to address the social housing needs of urban Aboriginals, but service providers gathering in Ottawa say they have yet to hear how the money will be doled out.
The first tranche of money is supposed to be spent this fiscal year.
Marc Maracle, executive director of the Ottawa-based Gignul Non-Profit Housing Corporation, says he expects the federal government to address the question in its forthcoming strategy for urban Aboriginals, part of its $40-billion housing plan.
The government quietly told housing providers this week that it plans to address that gap with yet another funding stream to accompany existing individual strategies for First Nations, Inuit and Metis people.
Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says the details of any spending will be subject to talks with Aboriginal housing providers off-reserve.
