First Nations face many barriers from inception to occupancy when building housing assets on reserve, in particular for multi-family housing assets where traditional funding and financing is required. These processes nearly always require designations, leases and mortgages, which are costly, risky, slow and time consuming processes.

If implemented carefully, section 18(2) of the Indian Act holds promise as a more simple and affordable pathway to a mortgageable interest.

First Nations also face barriers to efficient, effective, fair, transparent and conflict free operation of housing assets once built, and significant cost to address disputes between provider and resident or provider and tenant. Either retaining a housing society or creating a Nation specific housing society offers the potential to insulate member housing from Nation politics and ensure long-term sustainability of housing assets by ensuring fair and consistent operations of these assets. Residential tenancy laws can be applied on reserve through the First Nations Commercial and Industrial Development Act to provide for more consistent and affordable governance of housing assets and resolution of disputes.

We breakdown the legal background, pathways to implementation, funding and partnership opportunities, and take a deeper look at the Squamish Nation as a case study.