Mr. Chair, I'll take this one. The Indigenous governments are getting more money from Ottawa, and the reason they're doing that I'm hoping is not just because that they don't trust us and we're doing a horrible job, I think it's because as a Cabinet we've been lobbying for the Indigenous governments to get money from Ottawa.
In the last Cabinet, which I was a part of, the philosophy was give us all the money because we know best and then we will decide where the money goes. That didn't work well for that Cabinet in honesty. Like I said, I was part of that, and I did see one Indigenous government get money and no other one. And so I learned from -- I try to learn from my mistakes as well as learning from our successes, and I learned that that was a bad strategy for the Cabinet. And so this Cabinet, from the very beginning, I've been saying to Ottawa and to the Indigenous governments, we are not your enemies; we are not a Cabinet that says give us all the money. We will stand beside the Indigenous governments. I've told Trudeau; I've told Carolyn Bennett that; I've told all the ministers that. They were shocked at the beginning and now they take it as normal. I told the Indigenous governments and I had to gain their trust, and it took some time, but I listened to them and I've gone to Ottawa with their asks and asked for their asks, not only for our asks but for what they need as well. So I think that we're doing a great job of working together with the federal government and with the Indigenous governments.
One of the things that I'm most proud about in this government, one of them, is the Council of Leaders table that we took part in. So we formed the Council of Leaders table. Every single Indigenous government is on it.
And one of the first priorities that we're doing, the Council of Leaders and Minister Chinna -- kudos to Minister Chinna -- is that we've agreed that there is a working group that is formed from that table that will be looking at every single one of the housing policies. How more working in collaboration can you get than actually sitting at a table with all of the Indigenous governments and looking at all of the policies for housing?
And I'm hoping, Mr. Chair, that that will just keep going. Not only ending with housing but every program because that is part of United Nations declaration, is doing that work. And it's going to take time but we're committed to doing it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.