Aboriginal Co-operatives in Canada - Centre for the Study of Co ...

A P P E N D I X I ~local school and was at one time the delivery agent for the Ontario Aboriginal Healing andWellness Strategy, a responsibility that was later taken over by a neighbouring First Nationscommunity.We try to stick mostly to housing, but members of the co-op did develop an Urban NativeParents Association and they were instrumental in getting the Native language taught inthe neighbourhood school and actually they went on to branch out to other schools inLondon that had a concentration of Aboriginal students. As well we became a healthaccess centre as part of the Healing and Wellness Strategy and so we were able to bringsome of these services into the city. 9The fact that a local First Nations community took over the health access centre, funded bythe Healing and Wellness Strategy, seems to point to a degree of uncertainty surrounding thecontrol and jurisdiction over services to Aboriginal people in urban areas. In this particularcase, the NITH was criticized publicly by a local First Nations chief for their attempt to seekrepresentation as the “Aboriginal seat” on the board of the Co-operative Housing Federationof Canada. The criticism revolved around the questions of jurisdiction and control. In otherwords, the chief was questioning whether or not an independent Aboriginal housing co-op hasthe authority to represent Aboriginal interests in this area. As this was a more or less recentoccurrence, it is perhaps a good time to move from the early years of the co-ops to currentissues.Current IssuesBoth the NITH and the FNHC protect their existing agreements and seek out new sources offunding through their affiliations with provincial and federal organizations. For example, theCMHC Housing Co-op programme (56.1) ended in 1985 and was replaced by the IndexLinked Mortgage (ILM) programme and partnered with the provincial government. However,given the successful lobbying of both federal and provincial co-op housing organizations, thenew ILM programme policy guidelines specifically guarantees that the NITH and the FNHCwill continue to be funded federally.It is about involvement and ownership. Our lobby campaign was grass roots, actualmembers organizing and contacting MPs saying, ‘I don’t want Mike Harris in chargeof my home,’ and this effort has been effective. 10If the co-op defaulted, we have over $8 million in property with maybe $3 million stillowing. This is why when Harris was elected he said that the first thing that he was going9 Denise McGahan, NITH.10 Butch Stevenson, NITH.340 ~