Parti Québecois demands more Nunavik housing

A Péquiste member of Quebec’s national assembly says the province’s governing Liberal party “lacks sensitivity” to Nunavik’s housing crisis and needs to act now.

Nunavimmiut families continue to suffer because of the government’s lack of action, Alexandre Cloutier, the Parti Québecois member for Lac-Saint-Jean and critic for aboriginal affairs, said in a Sept. 28 news release.

Cloutier pointed to the report on youth protection services in Nunavik from Quebec’s human rights commission, which called for more housing across the region.

The report also suggested Nunavik’s overcrowded housing puts children in difficult situations at further risk.

“We know that domestic violence Nunavik is ten times higher than the Canadian average, the suicide rate is the highest in Quebec, that one child in two lives in an environment where there is alcohol abuse and where violence is present,” Cloutier said in the press release. “And when we often see twelve to fifteen people living together in one home, we can not remain inactive.”

Rene Gauvreau, the Parti Québécois critic for youth protection, also said the findings of the commission’s report are “overwhelming.”

“This housing crisis is degenerating into a social crisis,” Gauvreau said in the release. “Enough! Families in Nunavik deserve better than living in third world conditions.”