New housing project underway in Chippewas of Rama First Nation
By Rick Garrick
CHIPPEWAS OF RAMA FIRST NATION — Chippewas of Rama First Nation is currently completing the construction of two 22-unit apartment buildings on Benson Road with the assistance of $9.6 million in Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation Rapid Housing Initiative funding.
“I’ve been in politics off and on since 1982, and since that time, the housing has been the number one issue in the community,” says Chippewas of Rama Chief Ted Williams. “Forty years ago, we would do one [house] a year, then it ramped itself up and we started doing multiple units per year. One year, we did kind of like a condominium complex, that was about 24 years ago, but housing has always been an issue in the community.”
Chief Williams says they exercise a community visioning process every 10 years, and for each 10-year period, housing is always the number one or two issue, so they decided to apply for the Rapid Housing Initiative funding in order to build 44 new housing units, which include 36 one-bedroom apartments and eight two-bedroom apartments.
“We made a decision to build and have built and delivered to the community two 22-unit apartment complexes,” Chief Williams says, noting that the total cost for the two apartment buildings is about $18.5 to $19 million. “So that has allowed us to put a major dent into the housing requests.”
The federal government announced in November 2024 that it was providing $262.2 million to help build 691 new homes in northern and Indigenous communities in Ontario.
“Through programs like the Rapid Housing Initiative and the Affordable Housing Fund, we’re helping Canadians secure their right to a home they can call their own,” says Thunder Bay-Superior North MP Patty Hajdu, minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario and then the minister of Indigenous Services Canada. “The new homes announced for Northern Ontario are a great example of how we’re unlocking the potential to transform lives and communities. Together, we are building a future where every generation has a safe, secure place to call home.”
Chief Williams says many of their off-reserve citizens who live in the Orillia and Toronto areas would like to come home because of job opportunities.
“We have about 2,200 people on our membership list, and a little shy of 1,000 living in the community,” Chief Williams says. “More and more families are expressing a desire to come back home.”
Chief Williams says they started preparing the ground for the two apartment buildings late last summer.
“We have contracted a company that has an indoor factory that builds these units, kind of like a puzzle,” he says. “We did land the first building just before Christmas, and then the second building came in late January. The units themselves are in place, but the finishing work is occurring right now.”
Chief Williams says they are currently looking to have the tenants for the first 22-unit apartment building in their housing units by Aug. 1.
“Hopefully the second 22-unit building will have tenants in there in the first week of September,” he says. “The square footage is about 600-700 for the single bedroom [units], and about 900 for the double [bedroom units].”
Denis Paccagnella, director of facilities and operations at Chippewas of Rama, says the two buildings have on-site laundry facilities, indoor mailboxes, and a lounge.
“The units themselves are outfitted with good quality cabinets, all the appliances,” Paccagnella says. “The have VTAC (heat pump) technology for the heating/cooling, so they’re like a vertical closeted air conditioner/heater — they’re very efficient and electrically charged. We’ve over-insulated the building from standard to make it 20 per cent more efficient.”
Paccagnella says they have four accessible units per building, which is also over the minimum standard.
“We’ve tried to make it as lighted an area as possible with lots of natural light coming into the units,” Paccagnella says. “They have higher ceilings, so it gives you a sense of space when you walk through them.”