Materials for 178 homes stuck in Montreal after last sealift

Forty-four truckloads of building supplies missed the last boat to Nunavut, leaving contractors in the territory without material needed to complete 178 homes.

The screw-up affects every Nunavut community other than the Kitikmeot communities supplied by barge from Hay River, which are Kugluktuk, Cambridge Bay, Gjoa Haven and Taloyoak.

Water pipes, boilers, heaters, electrical wiring and circuit breakers are among the supplies that still languish in Montreal, after the last sealift boat sailed.

The missing material was never properly packaged for sealift at a marshalling area in Montreal, after it had been purchased and delivered by suppliers on time in mid-May, five weeks before the departure of the first sealift boat, said Peter Scott, president of the Nunavut Housing Corp.

Scott would not comment in detail on what went wrong, other than "apparently there was space and organization lacking" at the marshaling area. He also said the housing corp. is considering its legal options against the contractor, Aaruja Development Corp. of Clyde River, which partnered with a marshaling company in Quebec to win the contract.

Aarruja operates, among other things, a convenience store, hotel and restaurant in Clyde River. The company did not return phone calls before the Nunatsiaq News deadline this week.

The Nunavut Housing Corp. now plans to fly most of the missing supplies into Nunavut. One solution, Scott said, would be to truck the supplies to Yellowknife and Goose Bay, then fly the supplies the remaining distance.

Finishing supplies may be brought in on next summer's sealift.

Scott said he still expects to meet the goal of building 725 homes over three years, with $200 million provided by the federal government in the spring of 2006 to help address Nunavut's housing shortage.

In fact, Scott says the housing corporation saved so much money by purchasing materials through a number of different contractors that it will be able to build an additional 25 to 30 units.

The housing corporation usually hires a single company to purchase everything needed to assemble a home. This year, instead, it hired five separate contractors to buy different categories of supplies, such as electrical goods.

As for the sealift screw-up, Scott said it may cost the equivalent of about four units. "We may be talking $1 million," he said.

The housing money began as part of the Kelowna deal struck between premiers and the former Liberal government during the winter of 2005, which would have seen $5 billion spent over a decade on improving the lives of aboriginal people.

When the Liberal government toppled, the Kelowna deal died, but the Conservatives later agreed to honour the commitment to build more public housing across the North. Of $300 million pledged to build homes in the territories, two-thirds was set aside for Nunavut.

At the time of the funding announcement, Nunavut's $200 million was expected to be enough to build 800 homes. That number later shrank due to the rising costs of fuel, shipping and labour.

But even if the new homes are built on time, that's only enough to keep pace with Nunavut's rapidly growing population. The territory would still need another 2,500 homes to address the housing shortage.

The Nunavut government maintains that the $200 million, administered by a Nunavut Housing Trust, is a "down payment" on the rest of what the federal government should give to address the housing shortage.

Overcrowded housing has been blamed for nearly every social evil in Nunavut.

Toss several families crammed into a single apartment, add drinking problems, and you have a recipe for noisy arguments and fighting.

Understandably, children have trouble studying in such an environment, which has been fingered as one of the reasons why the territory has such an enormous drop-out rate in schools.

Poorly-ventilated, smoke-filled rooms are seen as an important reason why lung problems are so prevalent.

Of course, Nunavut's social problems would still exist if the housing shortage were fixed, but they would seem less insurmountable if one major problem, connected to all others, were solved.

Fighting also damages housing units, and results in housing authority money being spent on repairing broken windows and other damage that could be spent on building new homes. It becomes a vicious circle.

Money from the Nunavut Housing Trust is expected to bring 57 units to Iqaluit and 52 units to Arviat and Baker Lake. Rankin Inlet and Igloolik are to receive 41 units, Pangnirtung 40 units, and Pond Inlet and Cape Dorset 36 units.

The remaining homes are to be spread around the territory as follows:

Kugluktuk, 34 units; Cambridge Bay, 33 units; Gjoa Haven, 32 units; Taloyoak, 30 units; Clyde River, 29 units; Sanikiluaq, 27 units; Repulse Bay, 26 units; Hall Beach, 25 units; Arctic Bay and Coral Harbour, 24 units; Kugaaruk, 22; Qikiqtarjuaq, 21; Kimmirut, 10; Chesterfield Inlet and Whale Cove, 10; and Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord, six.