Executive Summary: Cree Nation of Eastmain, Quebec
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The first round of the Smart Cities Challenge is closed. The Government of Canada announced the four winners (City of Montréal, Québec; Nunavut Communities, Nunavut; City of Guelph and County of Wellington, Ontario; and Town of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia) on May 14, 2019.
Improving Community well-being. This statement highlights the challenge that the CNE intends to overcome with its Net-Zero Energy Housing Program.
Housing is essential for a healthy community and, like many Indigenous communities, the CNE has a critical shortage of housing for its members. The lack of adequate housing in Indigenous communities results in overcrowding, a factor in many of the health and social issues inflicting our communities.
In fact, the quality of housing in Indigenous communities has been a hot topic in Canadian news for years, and even recently. The effects of mould and inadequate housing are being linked in the media to serious health conditions and even the deaths of Elders and children. It is clear that housing remains forefront and centre for Canadians, and especially for Indigenous communities.
Through its Net-Zero Energy (NZE) Housing Program, the CNE will construct quality, energy-efficient homes that are affordable for its members. The NZE Housing Program consists of new builds and retrofitting of existing homes. An inventory of single-family homes, an Accessible House and Multi-Client Six-Plexes (Six-Plex) will ensure that housing responds to members' needs and financial capacity.
The CNE vision is clear – create an affordable, resilient, energy-efficient housing program that offers rental and private homeownership opportunities. Substantial performance measurement activities will enable the CNE to determine the success of its NZE program and ensure that milestones and deliverables are on time and on budget.
By establishing an experienced and dedicated project management team, the CNE has been able to develop a comprehensive project implementation plan aimed at achieving success. The CNE will introduce smart technologies and net-zero building techniques to collect quantitative data on the net-zero performance of the houses built and retrofitted under its NZE program. In addition, the CNE will collect qualitative data on residents' housing experiences.
By having a strong, well-established governance system auditable to an ISO/IMS, the CNE will effectively manage program implementation to ensure outcomes are achieved through effective stakeholder engagement, strong leadership and risk-based thinking. The CNE governance framework is grounded in openness, transparency and accountability.
Throughout the development of its NZE program, the CNE has continuously engaged with stakeholders to lead to better decisions and ensure a holistic approach is taken in addressing the housing crisis in Eastmain.
Because of the nature of the NZE program, the CNE will ensure that personal information collected from its members is used, stored and disclosed in accordance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Data Act. Information collected under the NZE program monitoring and research activities will be anonymized prior to any disclosure.
The CNE undertook extensive costing exercises that has already yielded savings for our NZE program. The project management team aggressively sought funding, and will continue to do so, in order to supplement the SCC prize money to ensure the viability of the NZE program with minimum financial risk. The CNE has committed to matching the prize money if selected as the $5M category winner.
The aforementioned elements are aimed at bringing success and sustainability to the NZE program. Through collaborations with academia, industry experts and government agencies, the CNE is capable of offering not just housing to its members, but a better quality of life. Initiatives like training, work experience and economic development opportunities will ensure a strong and viable future for the community.
Our NZE program was designed around scalability, transferability and replicability. The smart technologies used are commercially available, the governance structure is easily transferable to other Indigenous communities and the house designs and building techniques can be scaled to reflect the financial and technical capacity of other communities, taking into consideration their culture and traditions.
The CNE is an Indigenous community and therefore benefits from obligations generally on the federal Crown and provinces with respect to the duty to consult and modern treaty obligations. At the same time, the CNE has ensured that its NZE program is inclusive and leads to a better quality of life for youth, women, elders and people with disabilities.
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