Nunavik housing windfall tied up in paperwork

From left, Makivik president Jobie Tukkiapik, INAC minister Carolyn Bennett and Jobie Saunders of Makivik Construction at a construction site in Kuujjuaq Sept. 15, during Bennett’s two-day visit to the Nunavik community. (PHOTO COURTESY OF MAKIVIK CORP)

KUUJJUAQ—Nunavik is gearing up for one of its biggest years in social housing construction, with 204 units set to be built across the region in 2017.

But like the provision of much of the region’s social housing in recent years, the delivery of these latest units remains uncertain.

In what should have been good news for the region, Makivik Corp. got word from the federal government in August that the $50 million announced in Ottawa’s spring budget would flow directly through the Inuit birthright organization towards social housing.

The $50 million translates into 144 new units, plus 60 more units funded through the Quebec government. An additional 10 units designed for elders are expected to be built next year, with money from Quebec.

But now Nunavik officials are waiting on a bureaucratic hold-up on the part of the Quebec government, which has to sign an operations agreement to finalize the federal government’s contribution before Makivik has the final go-ahead.

“It’s not going to be possible for those buildings to be occupied if that agreement hasn’t been signed,” said the Kativik Regional Government’s chair Jennifer Munick Sept 14 during regional council meetings in Kuujjuaq.

As part of the federal agreement, the housing unites must be built before March 2018, which, in Nunavik’s short construction season, means they’ll have to be built in 2017.

That means Makivik’s construction division must start setting housing pads this year and ordering building materials for the final sealift, so crews can begin construction early next spring.

Based on Quebec’s contribution of 60 units in 2017, the KRG allocated last spring homes to six communities: Kangiqsualujjuaq, Kangiqsujuaq, Inukjuak, Salluit, Tasiujaq and Umiujaq.

The additional 144 units, mostly one and two-bedroom homes, will go to those same communities as well as to three others: Kuujjuaq, Puvirnituq and Ivujivik.

The communities are selected according to the housing needs identified in Nunavik’s 2015 housing needs survey, which found the region as a whole is in need of 1, 028 homes to properly house its population.

Regional leaders had a chance to thank federal Indigenous and Northern Affairs minister Carolyn Bennett in person for the new housing when she visited Kuujjuaq Sept. 14 and 15. Officials from Makivik Corp. took the minister on a tour of one of its housing construction sites.

“I wanted to show her what one line in this year’s federal budget will mean for our region,” said Makivik Corp. president Jobie Tukkiapik.

“This will bring hope for Inuit in the region desperate to have a home.”

Nunavik typically negotiates five-year tri-partite agreements with Quebec and Ottawa to deliver social housing to the region.

But the region has negotiated with the federal and provincial governments on an interim basis since the most recent agreement expired in March 2015.

Regional leaders say they hope that the release of a long-awaited cost-of-living study later this year will help demonstrate the high expenses and demands of living in the region.

The region’s housing woes don’t end there: Nunavik’s housing officials are waiting on Quebec to re-start negotiations on a social housing rent freeze, along with discussions on how to improve the region’s home ownership program.