Feds need to chip in more money for Nunavik social housing: Makivik

Makivik Corp. president Jobie Tukkiapik wants the federal government to do its part to help build more social housing in Nunavik.

The Quebec government has agreed to a “special catch-up program” to build new social housing and meet the need for 1,000 new units in the region, he said.

But the federal government hasn’t agreed to match Quebec’s contribution.

Tukkiapik called on the federal and provincial governments “to resolve this unacceptable situation and to ensure adequate housing for Nunavik residents.”

Tukkiapik’s comments in a March 20 news release came a day before the federal budget is set to be released — March 21 in Ottawa.

His comments followed the release of a report from the Commission populaire itinérante sur le droit au logement which visited Kuujjuaq last year to investigate housing conditions in the Nunavik hub.

The self-described “people’s commission” travelled throughout Quebec, inviting people who live in poor housing conditions, or in aboriginal communities, or who are homeless to speak to them.

In its report Urgence en la demeure, the commission makes a recommendation directed to the federal government: it says Ottawa must support Quebec in its efforts to build and renovate housing in Nunavik to reach the target of 1,000 new units.

“We started our tour in Kuujjuaq Quebec and we ended in the Anishnabe community of Lac Simon,” said commissioner Marcel Duhaime. “The housing situation in these communities is at a level that most Quebecers could not imagine. Repeatedly, we talked about tiny houses, designed to accommodate a family, in which 15 people are crammed in, obliging them to take turns to sleep on the sofa and with a constant lack of privacy. Nunavik urgently needs 1,000 new dwellings.”

[Makivik Corp., which had discussed officially changing its name to “Makivvik,” to better reflect the Inuttitut pronunciation, will continue to use Makivik for the present, Nunatsiaq News has learned]