We are pleased to announce that Dominique Collin has joined the Foundation for an 18-month fellowship focusing on Indigenous housing. The McConnell fellowship program enhances our capacity to respond to time-sensitive opportunities that increase our impact. Fellows provide a complimentary expertise to the Foundation’s team in a domain aligned with its focus areas.
Dominique Collin has more than 25 years of experience in Indigenous access to capital issues including micro-credit, business financing, community banking, risk capital, housing and infrastructure financing, and First Nations government taxation. His focus has been on assisting innovative financing solutions developed by Indigenous financial institutions that integrate sustainability, social justice, and financial viability. More recently his interests have focused on innovative housing finance solutions.
McConnell has been supporting Indigenous housing initiatives for several years as part of our nearly 20-year journey supporting reconciliation efforts across the country. The focus of our work in this area has been to increase core housing in First Nations and Northern communities, where the need is highest, as a means of also improving downstream socio-economic outcomes such as health, safety, skills retention, educational achievement, employment and economic development.
As part of his fellowship, Dominique will provide recommendations to the Foundation based on a deep understanding of the root causes of Canada’s First Nations housing challenge to update and implement our Indigenous housing strategy. The aim of this work is to stimulate replicable and scalable innovation in First Nations affordable housing finance. As well, we wish to support culturally relevant Indigenous housing solutions and to further engage government and impact investors to support the growth of the Indigenous housing sector.
Over the coming months, Dominique will be connecting with our partners and others in the sector. We invite you to reach out to our reconciliation team if you would like to know more.