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Cenovus Energy Inc. has announced it will commit $50 million over five years to build new homes on First Nations communities in northern Alberta.

The Calgary-headquartered company said the initiative is the single largest community investment in Cenovus’s history and will result in the construction of about 200 new houses in six First Nations and Métis communities closest to Cenovus’s Christina Lake and Foster Creek oilsands. The six communities that will benefit from the program are Beaver Lake Cree Nation, Chard Métis (Local 218), Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation, Cold Lake First Nations, Conklin Métis (Local 193) and Heart Lake First Nation.

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Cenovus CEO Alex Pourbaix said First Nations leaders have told him a shortfall in federal support for Indigenous housing has left many northern Alberta communities in a crisis situation, with many families having no other option but to live in overcrowded and unsafe conditions. He added he was personally moved by his own visits to some of the communities, where he witnessed parents with multiple children living in some cases in what amounts to nothing more than a one-room cabin.