The NHRC's Distinct Needs Working Group meeting was held on Tuesday morning April 24th, 2012 at the Château Cartier Hotel, 1170 Aylmer Road in Gatineau.

Co-chairs Karla Skoutajan of Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada and Jim Zamprelli of CMHC opened the meeting. The first presenter, Odile Légaré of Société d'habitation du Québec, examined housing conditions of Aboriginal communities in Northern Québec. This was followed by a presentation on the integration of Aboriginal culture design considerations with green building methods to create sustainable Aboriginal housing by Johann Kyser of Technological Residence Traditional Living. Lastly, Don McCaskill of Trent University and Kevin FitzMaurice of the University of Sudbury, presented the research findings of the Toronto Aboriginal Research Project (TARP).

All NHRC Working Group sessions were broadcast live over the internet. You can watch the Spring 2012 video webcast through the following link http://www1.webcastcanada.ca//nhrc-cnrl/archives/apr24-eng/apr24-12-eng.php.