Ikur’raq cabin program expands with $500,000 in federal money

The federal government has topped up a cabin program meant to reduce homelessness in Nunavut, Family Services Minister Gwen Healey Akearok announced Oct. 27.

Close to $514,000 will go towards the territory’s Ikur’raq Cabins Initiative, a project meant to give people a temporary place of respite from overcrowding, violence and addiction issues. The money will fund 15 cabins.

“Out-of-shelter homelessness is a major public health and safety issue,” Akearok said in her minister’s statement at the legislative assembly. “The Ikur’raq cabins offer a practical response to this urgent need.”

The GN funded the first set of 16 cabins in 2022 and the program was revived in 2025 with $1 million in federal money to build 20 additional cabins.

Akearok’s Oct. 27 announcement will bring the total to 51.

Hamlets, non-profits and hunters and trappers organizations can apply for $50,000 grants with the new round of funding.

The original 16 cabins include three Pangnirtung, two each in Arviat and Pond Inlet, and one cabin in each of Coral Harbour, Iqaluit, Clyde River, Naujaat, Baker Lake, Igloolik, Kugaaruk, Taloyoak, and Kugluktuk.

As of Oct. 20, six cabins from the second round of funding were complete and 14 were under construction, according to Family Services spokesperson Irma Arkus. Sanirajak and Kugaaruk have finished two each, while Sanikiluaq and Iqaluit have finished one each.

Two cabins in Arctic Bay are under construction, while one cabin in Arviat, Baker Lake, Chesterfield Inlet, Gjoa Haven, Igloolik, Kugluktuk, Naujaat, Pangnirtung, Pond Inlet, Qikiqtarjuaq, Rankin Inlet and Taloyoak are under construction.

Akearok said her department is working to build the cabins “in the communities where the need is greatest.”