Few details on federal plan to build 700 homes across Nunavut
Territory to receive new units through Build Canada Homes agency announced Sunday by prime minister
Housing Minister Lorne Kusugak says more details are still to come on the federal partnership with Nunavut Housing Corp. to deliver 700 units in the territory. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)
The federal government will partner with Nunavut Housing Corp. to build 700 homes in the territory through the new Build Canada Homes agency — but so far, few details have been released.
“As we await further program details from the Government of Canada, [the housing corporation] stands ready to deliver and is already at work with planning and due diligence,” Lorne Kusugak, the minister responsible for Nunavut Housing Corp., told the legislative assembly Monday.
The announcement “says a lot about the federal government’s trust and faith in the Nunavut Housing Corp.,” he said in an interview afterward.
In Ottawa on Sunday, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Build Canada Homes will be used to “supercharge” home construction across Canada. The newly created federal agency will partner with the private sector to build public housing and affordable housing.
“It will help double the pace of housing construction in this country over the next decade,” Carney predicted.
The government is providing Build Canada Homes with $13 billion in initial capital to develop federal lands in Dartmouth, N.S., Longueil, Que., Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton to deliver 4,000 factory-built homes, in addition to the 700 for Nunavut.
It’s unclear how much of that funding will go toward the Nunavut builds, and whether it will cover ongoing construction or apply only to new builds.
Those details will have to be “ironed out” in the coming weeks, said Eiryn Devereaux, president and CEO of Nunavut Housing Corp.
Devereaux and Kusugak both confirmed the new units will be part of Nunavut 3000, the $2.6-billion plan announced by the Government of Nunavut in 2022 to build 3,000 new residential units by the end of the decade.
“It’s such a drop in the bucket,” Nunavut’s NDP MP Lori Idlout said in a phone interview Monday, reacting to the federal government’s announcement. She said she’s “curious” about how it came up with the “magical number” of 700 units.
“This government is saying how important Arctic security and Arctic sovereignty is — why are they only announcing such a small amount?”
A spokesperson for Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada, the department responsible for federal public infrastructure policy, didn’t respond to an inquiry from Nunatsiaq News on Monday afternoon.
Of the 700 homes planned for Nunavut, 210 will be built off-site as factory-built housing. Idlout said she hopes they can be manufactured in Nunavut at Arviat’s modular homes factory, which is set to be completed in April 2026.
More than 60 per cent of Nunavummiut rely on public housing — 45 per cent of which is considered overcrowded — and the public housing wait list sits at 3,348 as of March, according to the auditor general’s report published in May.
Nunavik wasn’t mentioned in the initial plans for new builds through Build Canada Home. Neither the Kativik Regional Government nor the Nunavik Housing Bureau were aware of such plans, with both deferring Monday to Makivvik Corp.
Miriam Dewar, a spokesperson for Makivvik, said the corporation has “engaged” with the federal government on how the new agency can support the region, but there has been “no money announced or committed for Nunavik.”
So how will these units and new money be awarded, cut the cards high card wins, pull straws, short straw wins , pull company name out of a hat. You wouldn’t possibly consider a public tender. Get really creative dump all the smoke and mirrors that are used to supposedly promote inuit firms. There aren’t any. Everyone knows that. Go public tender, no fancy bid adjustments for local or northern or inuit owned. Low bid with bonding and insurance and history of past performance wins. Save hundreds of thousands getting rid of NNI which was lot of well documented BS. Or just sole source to NCCD OR whatever they are called this week. Oh by the way how is that working out for you as you stand ready to deliver.
For far to long these business that declare Inuit ownership
Like take political construction
They claim they are Inuit owned well a small percentage really is own by a Inuit
You would think with all this company has in Iqaluit and in Quebec
Why does the Inuit share holder live in a public housing house not even her own home
With the size of the company you’ed think that she would disqualify for public housing
Can NHC get local housing boards to collect rent first?
If I were a fed, I’d be, like,…”Get that down to zero…then we can talk.”🤯👿☠️
Kusugak said, “The announcement “says a lot about the federal government’s trust and faith in the Nunavut Housing Corp.,” . Sure they do because only someone 2100 km from Iqaluit would have any trust or faith in NHC. Does he think any Nunavummiut believe that?
The scathing AG Report drops in late May and the good old Minister is nowhere to be found. Answers no questions. None. When asked the Premier says, “ he has not read it”. All of this is followed by multiple media reports and social media postings questioning how NHC is running the NU 3000 and its agreement with NCCD. Exposing the ongoing debacle. This culminates with the recent Committee Hearings on Housing (not that it accomplished much of anything).
So does Kusugak actually believe that Nunavummiut have any faith in him or NHC? Or is he so delusional that he believes we all don’t know that the Fed’s don’t have a whole lot of options on “who to work with” in Nunavut, to try and help get homes built. Being the only choice does not make you special or trustworthy, nor does it speak to faith. It just means you are the “default to”option. Also love Devereaux saying, “they will add those 700 units to the NU 3000 Project” You have to love the absolute audacity. So are you going to deliver 3700 new homes by 2030 now? Yeah I did not think so.
The only potential saviour is the upcoming elections and the possibility that Nunavummiut actually show up and send a clear message by electing candidates that will completely overhaul NHC and the disastrous NU 3000. Turn out and vote!
need new faces and ideas . please put your name in. new energy will help
“The government is providing Build Canada Homes with $13 billion in initial capital to develop federal lands in Dartmouth, N.S., Longueil, Que., Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton to deliver 4,000 factory-built homes”.
I sure hope someone got the story wrong.
That works out to $3,250,000 to “develop land the federal government already owns” for 1 house. And it’s going to be an “affordable” house.
Maybe affordable by the billionaires who run the Liberal Party. Not affordable by me, and probably not by you.
Perhaps it’s a signal of the sort of inflation the Prime Minister intends to give us.
The announced $13 billion is not earmarked for just the initial 4,000 homes, it is for the program in general, which will have multiple stages. So it’s not ’13 Billion for 4,000 homes’, it’s ’13 Billion for X homes(where X = 4000+)’
start from high arctic
Just to increase qulliq energy cost? I hope they turn to wind turbine or river dams even solar power. One place controlling energy electricity we need separate parties government. Safer for our health costing citizens alot. Waste of time
The federal government should be setting aside. Any more funding for public Nunavut. Until there is a complete overhaul of the department.
The bidding process needs to be fixed. Construction companies being given multi million dollar contracts. With no bid bonds in place. No penalties placed on them if the projects are not completed on time. Paying for extras that should have been included the original bid. The entire department is just a GD mess.
Who suffers the people of Nunavut.
So the feds have given money for housing and the territorial government is in for their share, even the mines have brought their wallet to the table for housing. Sadly absent from the table are the inuit orgs. Seems like housing is everyone else problem except theirs. Staying rich while everyone else works to solve a long standing issue.
that’s the working principle of our orgs..make billions
Nice brand new prefab house up in Resolute today, another one in the next couple of days. Probably start on the six plex next. We’re luckily serviced by utilidor, no vacuum trucks here.
And then if they try using the tender process, the greedy contractors bid way too high, well over a million per apartment…..welll over!!!