34 Spring/Summer 2026 Iron Workers Local 786 705-674-6903 IW786.com IW786.com FUTURE GENERATIONS were up all night, hungry – how are you expecting them to learn?” The connection between housing and well-being is immediate. “Home is where you spend most of your time,” Wesley says. “And if your home is not secure, if it’s filled with unhealthy habits, that is going to affect your health as well.” In both contexts, housing is more than infrastructure. It is the foundation for everything else: health, education, employment and the ability to remain rooted in community. That is why both Wesley and Corbiere frame housing as a core part of reconciliation. “Canada’s obligations, in terms of housing for the First Nations, it’s more than just, ‘you need to build more houses,’” Wesley says. “They also have to consider the harm that comes with not having enough homes, or even when families do have homes, sometimes they’re not in good condition.” “It’s a rights obligation,” she adds. “Everyone deserves to have a healthy, stable, functional home to live in.” Yet despite those obligations, both point to a lack of accountability across systems. “No one really wants to be accountable for the issues that we have pertaining to housing,” Wesley says. “It’s like, ‘it’s the federal government’s fault. We don’t get enough money.’” But responsibility, she argues, cannot stop there. “Who’s liaising with the federal government?” she asks. “Who’s sitting at these tables advocating for housing needs?” Corbiere sees that same gap from the off-reserve perspective. “The biggest gap I see in leadership is accountability,” she says. “Communities should not only have better housing access for youth who want to live on reserve, but also should have programs and funding for youth who need help with housing off reserve.” Her vision points towards collaboration between Indigenous communities, organ- izations and municipalities. “It would be great to see Indigenous organizations or communities work alongside municipal- ities to create buildings or homes that are a part of an affordable living program for youth who are living off reserve in areas all over Ontario,” Corbiere says. For Wesley, meaningful solutions must also come from within. “Putting more value to community self-determination,” she says. “Giving the microphone back to the people who are living in these realities.” Together, their perspectives map the full scope of the issue, on and off reserve, shaped by different systems but producing the same instability. Reconciliation must be something that can be lived, not something campaign- promised and forgotten. It must be reflected in whether young people can remain in their communities or return to them without sacrificing stability, safety or opportunity. But this generation is not waiting quietly. They are naming what is broken, asking who is accountable and imagining something better. Meaningful reconciliation will not be defined only by what governments commit to, but by the rights for future generations that young people continue to assert – and whether those rights can be lived, and truly felt, at home. • Hunter Corbiere.
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