Space race: Nunavut MLAs grill minister about surplus GN buildings

Community and Government Services Minister Joe Savikataaq fended off a barrage of questions from MLAs March 3 who wanted to know why old GN buildings sat empty in their communities when those communities are starved for office space and housing. (FILE PHOTO)

Empty buildings across Nunavut have long frustrated MLAs, who have repeatedly raised their constituents’ urgent need for more housing and office space in the legislative assembly.

But now, the Government of Nunavut is finally formalizing a process to deal with those empty buildings in communities across the territory.

It is now up to each department to tell the Department of Community and Government Services about their “surplus” buildings on an annual basis, CGS Minister Joe Savikataaq said March 3 during committee of the whole at the legislature in Iqaluit.

The government will formalize a process once that annual list is collected, said the minister.

“If the client department surpluses the building, then it’s offered to other departments. And if other departments don’t want it, then the [local] hamlet gets first right of refusal,” Savikataaq told the committee of MLAs.

MLAs started asking the minister and some of his senior bureaucrats questions about the department’s operation and maintenance budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year on March 2.

On March 3, numerous MLAs took Savikataaq to task about the empty buildings in their communities.

Gjoa Haven MLA Tony Akoak, who has raised the “housing crisis” in his community before, asked Savikataaq about the old health centre that now stands empty.

“There’s lots of homelessness, in a sense. Can the building be made available to become a homeless shelter?” Akoak asked.

The minister said he didn’t know if the health centre had been labeled as “surplus” yet.

“I can feel for the member…but it’s not our mandate [to deal with] homelessness… If they need a shelter for the homeless, then they should be talking to the hamlet.”

The member from Baker Lake, Simeon Mikkungwak, said a registered society wants to use one empty building in his community.

But that building remains empty even after the GN transferred it to the hamlet, Mikkungwak said.

“If the hamlet accepts the building, then the GN’s involvement is done at that time,” Savikataaq said.

Mikkungwak then asked about another empty building in a “prime area” of Baker Lake known as “elders’ block.”

“The government shut down an old building in my community which was used by various groups due to the fact there were harmful substances within the infrastructure building. Are there any plans of renovating it or is the decision to decommission it?”

“Right now there are no plans to renovate. It would be cost prohibitive to resurrect the building due to age and its condition. But no plans to replace it either at the moment,” Savikataaq said, adding his department is still gauging how unsafe the building is.

Hudson Bay MLA Allan Rumbolt mentioned an issue he has been raising for years: his community’s desperate need for office space.

On March 2, Savikataaq told the committee an office space strategy begun in the 2014-15 fiscal year revealed that at least 15 Nunavut communities needed more office space.

That strategy is still not complete, the minister said.

When asked what communities were in most critical need, Savikataaq said, “The member from Sanikiluaq will probably be happy to hear this but I believe that Sanikiluaq is in the most dire need.”

On March 3, Rumbolt responded to the minister’s comment: “I’m not happy, I’ve known that for many years.

“Finally the government did its own study and proved to themselves that Sanikiluaq is in dire need. So now that everyone agrees… what’s the next step?” Rumbolt asked.

Savikataaq said the short-term plan is to use an old Nunavut Arctic College building in the Belcher Islands community for office space, while the long-term plan is to convert the old health centre into more office spaces once the new centre is built.

Construction for the new centre is expected to begin in about a year, Rumbolt noted.

“In light of what’s happened with the school burning down in another community, is there a possibility that this or other projects will be delayed?”

Savikataaq said it was too early to know what capital projects may be affected by the fire that just demolished the Kugaaruk school Feb. 28 and March 1.

“But generally, if a project is approved by the house, it goes forward,” the minister said.