Carney’s ‘build, baby, build’ is ‘music’ to Nunavut developers’ ears. But there are issues
Developers discuss issues of building in the North at conference in Iqaluit this week
Nunavut Housing Corp. president Eiryn Devereaux moderates a panel discussion between Nunavut’s leading developers during the Nunavut Housing Forum at the Aqsarniit hotel in Iqaluit on Tuesday. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
In a victory speech after the April 28 federal election, Prime Minister Mark Carney promised, “We are going to build, baby, build.”
The government’s plan includes doubling the rate of construction so that 500,000 housing units per year get completed, and ramping up support for “nation-building” projects.
“It puts a big smile on the faces of people like me,” Nunavut Housing Corp. president Eiryn Devereaux told about 300 delegates Tuesday at the Nunavut Housing Forum, held at the Aqsarniit hotel in Iqaluit.
Moderating a panel discussion with a group of Nunavut’s leading private developers, Devereaux asked them about their hopes in the context of the federal government’s attitude toward infrastructure and its “strong focus on the Arctic.”
“When it became, in the last election, a bipartisan position to invest more in urban infrastructure, we were like, ‘Oh man, we better hustle. We’ve got projects to address,'” said Ben Cox, the CEO of Nunastar Properties Inc.
But Bo Rasmussen, president of Birchcliff Development Ltd., said that despite the government’s rhetoric being like “music to developers’ ears,” there might be issues in putting it into practice.
“It’s great that the government is saying, ‘build, build, build,’ but we still have to be sensitive to what the costs are for building, because they can’t keep going up,” he said.
The cost of private development in Nunavut can range from $500 to $700 per square foot and is rising more quickly than rental rates are, Rasmussen said.
By comparison, in Ontario development prices range from $130 to $400 per square foot, according to estimates by Re/Max Canada.
Rasmussen said that despite positive signs from the federal government, it might not be able to significantly change the situation.
At the same time, Mark Colley, president of EPLS Group of Companies, said the federal government’s priority should be investing in community infrastructure such as the Kivalliq Hydro-Fibre Link.
Without proper infrastructure like stable internet, electricity, water and sewage service, it’s hard for private developers to build and maintain their properties.
“Even having Starlink in the community has been a real game-changer for us,” Colley said of the satellite-based internet service.
“It’s really made it easier for us to maintain our properties and our builds.”
The Nunavut Housing Forum began Monday and wraps up Thursday.
I gotta disagree with Mark Colley. The federal government’s priority should be to avoid hugely overpriced and ill-thought out carbuncles like the Kivalliq Hydro Fibre project. There are waaay cheaper and scalable alternatives for producing power in the Kivalliq and bringing in internet connectivity.
I really don’t understand how this project got this far on hype and delusion at the expense of proper study and evaluation. We have to make sure every dollar counts.
Big Ben, why don’t you replace Carney if you can do better? Big talk not guts, no action. Just a slick tongue. Let the fella try….We should be just thankful Trudeau is gone, NDP fella’s gone. How fortunate we are but JT ghost will
haunt us for a long time, what a piece of work. New “Canadians” will missed him…..Carney; be wise, feed your children first….
hermann is past his expiry date now too
It must be so awesome to be President of the amazingly successful Nunavut Housing Corp., and be so pleased with your own supposed importance.
Wow, housing corporation president still has not announced the sq foot cost of Nunavut 3000, to date, more smoke and mirrors, the solution is right in front of him, builders in Iqaluit are saying 500-700 square foot, let them build baby build.
Building houses or anything else needs qualified trades people. Good ones start in school “shops”–ideally Grade 3 at the latest–and they can look forward to a rewarding career. It doesn’t just happen. Competent leaders have to find the money for trainers and equipment and then direct it to happen.
I totally agree with you, the problem and it’s a huge problem is that the Nunavut government has done a terrible job with trades, we have one trade school in all of Nunavut, if we are to build up capacity here in Nunavut we need trade schools in all three regions, GN should be partnering with their biggest contractors Kudlik and NCC to help build up the apprenticeship working with the Nunavut Arctic college, 2025 now and since Nunavut came to be the GN has done very little and it only seems to be getting worse.
Same with the Nunavut Teacher Education Program, that needs to be updated and revamped, Iqaluit schools will not hire graduates from the Arctic college, how is the GN addressing this?
So many departments at the GN is broken and not really doing much meaningful work for Nunavut yet their annual government budget is nearly 3 BILLION dollars for a population under 40 thousand, just doesn’t make any sense but then again it kinda does make sense when you see who the Presidents, deans and deputy ministers are at the GN.
totally agree with you, the problem and it’s a huge problem is that the Nunavut government has done a terrible job with trades, we have one trade school in all of Nunavut, if we are to build up capacity here in Nunavut we need trade schools in all three regions, GN should be partnering with their biggest contractors Kudlik and NCC to help build up the apprenticeship working with the Nunavut Arctic college, 2025 now and since Nunavut came to be the GN has done very little and it only seems to be getting worse.
Same with the Nunavut Teacher Education Program, that needs to be updated and revamped, Iqaluit schools will not hire graduates from the Arctic college, how is the GN addressing this?
So many departments at the GN is broken and not really doing much meaningful work for Nunavut yet their annual government budget is nearly 3 BILLION dollars for a population under 40 thousand, just doesn’t make any sense but then again it kinda does make sense when you see who the Presidents, deans and deputy ministers are at the GN.
“Build baby build” requires skilled tradesmen. Education isn’t working and paid training isn’t working, so as long as we have no choice but to import and house skilled workers in the north, costs will only get higher and higher. Trades in Nunavut is really hard work. Requires early mornings, long hours and u gotta be tough as nails.
Just build cheap houses in China and send them to nunavut. Problem solved.
Nunavut needs 1,000 builders, but has, perhaps, 50 builders. Canada, too, is short of builders. That’s why prices are going up.
Supply and demand. The more you try to build, the higher the unit price will be.
Nunavut absolutely must put it’s priority on increasing the number of Nunavummiut who are hands-on builders.
Nunavut does not need more potatoe companies to win contracts and then try to sub-contract the work. Nunavut must do the really hard, time-consuming work of training and developing its own construction force. Nothing else will end the housing crisis.
Easier to drop out of school have kids and get cushy job that pays 6-figures where you need zero skill and work ethic. Oh where did we go wrong?
Cultural change is a generational project.
Is it just me or has the strong work ethic of the 80’s/90’s that existed in the old NWT days disappeared? Video games, internet, cell phones and endless handouts seems to have made things worse?
It’s not the youth that have the lazy attitudes, it’s the grown ups- 40 and 50 year olds that only want to work 2 or 3 days a week. Working more will impact their housing access and costs so whats the benefit to work harder. The young learn form their parents and many demonstrate that a hand out from the government is better than a day of hard work. The opportunities are there but you cant “build baby build” three days a week.
Until the social housing situation is fixed, 3 days a week is all you’re gonna get.
All we have been hearing are how badly the housing corporation is mismanaging the all important corporation. Still the same management is in place? How are we to see progress to housing if we continue with the same incompetence?
which is correct the auditor generals report or the premier/ send president back to ns
Kind of a hard to trust liberals
It’s even harder to trust the Cons, their leader wasn’t elected yet lives in a government mansion paid for by the tax payers, career politician who like to divide people and blow smoke.
E ery patent should encourage thier kids to get involved with one of the trades e en if later they choose to do something else they will have leand a skill which will benefit them. This should not be considered a fall back position but rather additional skills and knowledge even if jit only serves to give you enough knowledge to know if your being screwed badly by someone you may hire down the road.
No inuit for inuit
This government has become that over the years, the GN likes to use the excuse it’s a public government and they have to represent everyone, which means a certain few that come up here but ignore the people from here.
This Premier has made it even worse with how he leads the GN, pretending everything is good and has his sights on a national scale with this Arctic sovereignty that does nothing to address all this issues plaguing the GN, the communities are left out, crying for some help, our capital has become a transient place that decides everything for Nunavut which doesn’t do a whole lot of the people. Look at all the mining symposiums, majority of the people who attend these are not from Nunavut, all the contracts most of them go to companies and people not from Nunavut.
This government is broken, not for the people of Nunavut.