Péquiste MNA sponsors petition on Nunavik housing

Nunavimmiut and Quebecers across the province have until the end of the month to sign an online petition demanding the Quebec government act to resolve Nunavik’s housing crisis.

Parti Québecois member Alexandre Cloutier – the official opposition’s native affairs critic – sponsored the petition on the website of Quebec’s National Assembly this past December.

The petition lists examples of how overcrowded housing aggravates social problems in Nunavik , stating “it is very important to live in adequate housing to have full control of our lives.”

The text goes on to explain the Kativik Municipal Housing Bureau estimates 1,000 homes are needed in Nunavik, not including the additional demand that will build on years to come.

“The five-year agreement between the Government of Québec, the Government of Canada, the Makivik Corporation, the Kativik Municipal Housing Bureau and the Kativik Regional Government doesn’t resolve the need for 1,000 housing units,” it says.

As of Feb. 2, 629 people had signed the petition.

The Association of Employees of Northern Quebec, the union that represents Nunavik teachers, has translated the petition into Inuktitut and encouraged its community delegates to circulate the petition throughout the region’s schools.

They are collecting any printed and signed petitions by Feb. 18, which they will forward on.

The Kativik Regional Government has also circulated the petition among its employees.

The petition will remain posted online until Mar.2, at which point Cloutier can present it to the National Assembly.

The provincial government has no obligation to react to a petition; it is simply a form of public pressure.

Quebec premier Jean Charest was recently the subject of one of the National Assembly’s largest and most public petitions, which demanded his resignation.

More than 247, ooo Quebecers have signed it so far.

View the Nunavik housing petition here: http://bit.ly/e7znVt.

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