Will this time be the right one? After thirty years of waiting, the setbacks of the enclave community of Pointe-Parent, near Natashquan, could come to an end thanks to a final proposed agreement submitted by the Minister responsible for Relations with First Nations and Inuit, Ian Lafrenière .
While passing through the North Shore, the minister met with thirteen house owners on Monday evening to formally offer to buy them back. The total amount committed is around $2 million.
For anyone observing the event from a distance, the affair may seem anecdotal, but for the population of Natashquan and the neighboring Innu community, it is the end of a crisis that has dragged on for decades.
“It’s a unique situation,” summarizes Mr. Lafrenière, who emphasizes that the government is not used to buying private properties.
Pointe-Parent is a sector of the municipality of Natashquan, formerly far from the village, near the neighboring Nutashkuan indigenous reserve. However, over the years, the Innu population has grown at breakneck speed while the federal government has allowed it to grow and grow again.
So much so that Pointe-Parent has become enclaved in the indigenous community.
During the 1990s, the government committed to relocating residents. Which did not materialize.
“There are people occupying my house”
“For years, they were not heard. It made relations more complex,” agrees the minister. With the neighborhood on hold, many residents left while episodes of vandalism and illegal occupation multiplied in empty houses.
As the housing shortage worsened in Innu territory, some began to occupy uninhabited residences.
Today, Natashquan has 250 inhabitants and the reserve, more than 1,200 people.
When passing the Duty on site in 2020, one of the owners said she had suffered vandalism three times in a year and a half.
“It represents years of stress and waiting, because we lived in uncertainty,” summarized Rosaire Landry, one of the owners concerned, on Monday afternoon.
Mr. Landry acquired his house in 1977, but has no longer lived there since moving to Sept-Îles in 2013. “There are people who occupy my house. […] It has never been seen in the province of Quebec or elsewhere that people take over houses like that. »
When The duty contacted him before the meeting with the minister, Mr. Landry hoped that the offers would be sufficient. “I hope they are not going to offer us the municipal assessment, we are already undervalued. »
In an interview, Minister Lafrenière did not want to say on Monday exactly how much he planned to offer them, but maintains that an update of the municipal evaluation must be carried out in the coming weeks to see if there is an increase .
He says he plans to disburse the equivalent of the $2 million invested in the first buyout phase.
Second phase
In 2021, the Quebec government undertook an initial process of buying back the homes of owners who still lived in Pointe-Parent. Nine of the eleven owners had accepted the offer. The non-resident owners have been waiting for their turn.
“I think it will be a great relief,” maintains the minister, who nevertheless emphasizes that no one will be expropriated and that it is a “voluntary” process.
The houses acquired by the State were all transferred to a non-profit organization (NPO) managed by the Innu community.
However, the transfer took time to come to fruition, according to the minister. “I was very, very clear with the citizens. As long as the transfer was not done with phase 1, I did not embark on the next one. And it has just been done. »
Originally, the area was to be reserved for tourist development and the creation of a campsite. However, the project was revised, the minister noted, due to the erosion of the banks and the “glaring” housing problem in Nutashkuan.
Houses in phase 1 are therefore sublet to people and could eventually be attached to the reserve under agreements with the federal government. However, the transfer of houses to the community does not solve the problem of the lack of housing in Nutashkuan, warns the minister.
“The federal government provides the budget to build three to five residences per year. And in most communities, the waiting lists are around a hundred residences. »