‘A staggering failure’: Report blasts governments over state of Inuit housing
Federal housing advocate says human rights are being violated; Inuit leaders hope report compels change
Federal Housing Advocate Marie-Josée Houle, centre, President of Nunatsiavut Johannes Lampe, left, and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. president Aluki Kotierk speak to reporters about a new report on “deplorable” housing conditions in Nunavut and Nunatsiavut on Monday in Ottawa. (Screenshot from Zoom)
Housing conditions that Inuit in Nunavut and Nunatsiavut live in are a violation of human rights and a “staggering failure” by all levels of government to invest in adequate accommodation for Inuit, says Canada’s federal housing advocate.
Marie-Josée Houle, the country’s first federal housing advocate, travelled to communities in Nunavut and Nunatsiavut in October 2022 to hear directly from families living in overcrowded, dangerous and unstable housing conditions.
Her findings from those visits are compiled in a new report Houle calls “a wake-up call to governments at all levels.”
“Adequate housing has been enshrined in Canadian law and this recognition of housing as a human right means that there is no excuse for inaction,” she said in her report.
Houle said that on her visits to Nunavut as well as Nain in Newfoundland and Labrador, she heard and saw how the distress caused by living in “deplorable” and unfit housing circumstances takes a “serious toll on people’s physical, mental and emotional health.”
“This disastrous outcome is a direct result of colonialism and the shocking inability of these various orders of government over decades to invest in Inuit human rights and to uphold them,” she said.
The report also cited the impacts of inadequate housing on people’s mental health, especially youth, the spread of tuberculosis and the effects of mould on health.
The report makes 10 recommendations for improved Nunavut housing and another 10 for housing in Nunatsiavut.
Recommendations for Nunavut include:
- The federal government should engage with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and the regional Inuit associations to co-design and develop housing programs appropriate to Nunavut’s logistics, capacity needs, and climate;
- The Government of Nunavut should consider how it can increase the authority and decision-making power local housing organizations have over the delivery of housing in their communities;
- The federal government should end inequity between Nunavut and the rest of Inuit Nunangat in its contributions to funding for housing.
Houle spoke to reporters in Ottawa on Monday alongside NTI president Aluki Kotierk and Nunatsiavut president Johannes Lampe.
“One thing is clear, these communities don’t need to be studied because nothing is getting better. If anything, things have gotten worse,” Houle said.
In her report, she cited data from the 2021 census showing nearly one-third of the close to 49,000 Inuit in Inuit Nunangat were living in dwellings in need of major repair — a 1.2 per cent increase from 2016 census data.
According to further 2021 census data, 53 per cent of Inuit in Inuit Nunangat live in crowded housing, Houle wrote.
Kotierk reiterated that the report covers housing issues Inuit have been fighting to fix for decades.
“None of this is new for Inuit. We live with it,” she said.
“My hope is that this report is compelling enough that it will stir in the hearts of Canadians, fellow Canadians, the desire to act on this and that fellow Canadians will also communicate this to the politicians, the federal government, the territorial governments, the provincial governments, about how urgent this is,” Kotierk said.
Nunavut MP Lori Idlout said in a statement Monday that Houle’s report reiterated “what Inuit have been saying for years, that they need urgent action to address the housing crisis.”
“People in Nunavut and Labrador are living in overcrowded homes, getting sick with tuberculosis, and using duct tape to repair their homes,” said Idlout.
She called on the federal government to provide immediate funding to build and repair the homes Indigenous communities need.
NTI has billions of dollars in the bank. They exist to serve Inuit, but they sit idly, doing nothing, while they have the money & capability to fix this crisis.
NTI has no capacity to.solve anything. They have however discovered that suing the government (GN or the Feds) is lucrative and ensures the steady cash flow that will sustain them in perpetuity.
Housing is Territorial and Federal responsibility. NTI could get involve but who is their economic arm? Get a good credit ppl, many can afford mortgages. Nevada, booze, drugs and bingo cards are ruining ur lives. And Hamlet offices are sitting on their butts without land planning within their boundaries. get involve and get utility lines expanded to outer markers.
The GNWT, as did all provinces and territories, accepted the responsibility for housing in about 1996. Attached to it were lots of federal dollars which stopped after 15 years. Billions were sent to the provinces and territories. What did those governments do with the $$? Spend it on housing? Nope.
That same deal transferred to the GN upon division in 1999.
Blame the feds all you want – territorial politicians have made the decisions for close to 30 years now.
Before colonialism Inuit lived in snow houses, skin tents, or dug out homes.
If this was preferable, why not return to it?
What people need is to own their own homes and take responsibility for looking after them.
Want us to go back in time? You can be the first and go back in time to before your ancestors immigrated to Canada and stop them from coming.
I don’t care if you go back in time or not, but if you think ‘colonialism’ is the problem it seems reasonable to suggest you give ‘going back in time’ a shot.
There’s nothing anyone could have done to stop Europeans from migrating and colonizing North America, anymore than your ancestors could have been stopped from doing the exact same thing a few hundred years before them.
You are the one telling people to move back in to Igloos and tents. We are here today, there is nothing we can do to change the past. all we can do is learn form it and move on and live life today.
The Federal Government needs to stop sending our tax dollars away to other countries and invest it in Canada, in Canadians . The housing crisis is no longer just an Inui or First Nation specific issue. The housing crisis is now affecting all of Canada. Middle class in southern Canada are going homeless at a faster rate than anytime in history. More and more people every month are relying on food banks just to survive today.
The Federal Government needs to slow immigration….not stop it, slow it down for a while until Canada’s housing infrastructure can catch up.
More people is just adding fuel to the fire that is already raging.
Immigration is a necessity for economic growth, but I agree it needs to be managed rationally, which I’m not sure is happening. And of course it adds pressure to out housing supply.
That said, reckless government spending (at home and abroad) has lead to inflation which means higher interest rates which means the cost of buying a home has become an out of reach goal for many, and has lead to a huge increase in bankruptcies.
Canada desperately need a new government that is focused on fiscal responsibility.
Not only did Inuit colonize the north eight hundred years ago, they wiped out the original inhabitants in the process.
Inuit did not colonize the arctic. We had no sovereign financing our exploration or settlement. We had no imperial core to return resources and wealth we extracted from someone else’s land.
And in no way did we wipe anyone out. In fact there is hardly any evidence whatsoever archaeologically that Inuit and the people here directly before us, ever interacted in a meaningful way.
The only sources of information we have of interaction come from Oral History. Which, if you had studied for a fraction of a second, points to an exceptional shyness and eventual co operation of Inuit and Tuniit.
Euroid-americans can and often do try and point to pre-colonial indigenous societies as being “just like them”, when in reality nobody has committed genocide and forced displacement on the scale of entire continents (North and South America), the way Europeans have.
This is just history.
Response to EskimoCommie
“This is history” you say. I say it is romantic, ahistorical narrative.
The Oxford dictionary defines ‘colonize’ as “come to settle among and establish political control over (the indigenous people of an area).”
This is exactly what the Thule (proto-Inuit) did when they moved into the lands of the Tuniit, who had inhabited what is now Nunavut & Greenland for at least 4,000 years prior. Whether there was a sovereign in a far off land is not relevant to the definition.
Here is some Oral history for you: “Before there were any Inuit, the first people were called Tuniit. They were strong but the Inuit killed them and took their land away.”
Louis Uqsuqituq Aivilingmiut – page 143 Uqalurait: An Oral History of Nunavut.
At a fundamental level, Indigenous peoples are just as murderous, and politically opportunistic as Europeans. All humans are, it’s in our nature as a social species. Granted, their less advanced technologies inhibited their capacity to inflict war at the scale Europeans later could, and would. That I will give you.
“Kotierk reiterated that the report covers housing issues Inuit have been fighting to fix for decades.”
Why don’t Inuit fix their own housing, you know, like people in the real world do every single day?
I think of all the positions of power in Nunavut that can directly help improve our way of life Aluki right now is the single most important person that COULD make a positive impact. It COULD be housing, education, justice for victims…., Pick something and make life better for Inuit.
Yes, NTI could drive some positive social change in Nunavut. But that crowd won’t. They never will, despite all the money in the NTI purse. For all the griping about so-called colonialism, NTI is the first in line to demand money from the south to assuage northern issues.
I have always wondered this. how come there’s never any responsibility on the tenants? I see people complaining about the smallest things which lead to bigger things. with such wide spread dependency on the maintenance staff, small things lead to big things which could have been nipped in the bud. dehumidifiers in over crowded places, air purifiers for over crowded places, not selling housing own appliances, mopping up overflows to prevent mold, using a space heater to help with frozen pipes while waiting for maintenance. There’s so much inactivity and I don’t understand why.
“This disastrous outcome is a direct result of colonialism”
Nunavut can return to pre-colonial housing anytime it likes. There’s not a single problem that doesn’t get blamed on “colonialism”. There was NO modern housing before “colonialism”, nothing but tents, igloos and sod houses.
Blaming colonialism places.fiscal responsibility on the Federal government. I would just as soon see Nunavut cut loose from federalism than continue this unsustainable charade.
Your statement fails to mention that Inuit are located in a lot of places they weren’t because of the federal relocation of the Inuit….Inuit are not native to Resolute Bay for example, it was a colonial attempt to put them there. Also, what about all the inter generational traumas caused by Colonialism. Easy for you to say that comment, when it is much deeper than you want to believe.
alex, help me see the relevance of your comment?
Inuit were building houses in Frobisher Bay in the 1950s.
Today, almost everything built in Nunavut is built by people from Quebec or Manitoba.
Why?
We have a government of “make it so” people who think they are entitled to high office, even though they’ve never done anything to learn how things need to be done.
They live in a world of aspirations, rather than practical planning.
Nothing will change, as long as we keep electing them.
It’s time for Nunavummiut to elect Inuit engineers, doctors, and scientists to positions in the Legislative Assembly.
Perhaps that’s why the education system is kept so bad – to keep us from having those people to vote for.
“It’s time for Nunavummiut to elect Inuit engineers, doctors, and scientists to positions in the Legislative Assembly.” Lets all be realistic – are there any Inuit engineers, doctors, or scientists? NO! First of all to become a doctor you need to go to school everyday for 7 – 10 years, is that possible? Most Inuit I know struggle to go to work everyday and most don’t work a full week ever. It will be a long long time before you see any Inuit doctors, engineers, or scientists.
I know for a fact an Inuk heart surgeon, an Inuk Internal Medicine, an Inuk engineer all from Nunavut .
The fact of the matter is NHC is not living up to its mandate in providing adequate safe housing,
Nunavut has a high rate of neglected housing by their Local Housing Association, LHO is obligation to provide these by their bylaws which are implemented by the board of directors !! The same BOD who are given board orientation when elected by staff from NHC which clearly outlines what their duties as BOD are !!
NTI is very clear that this is government issue to fix. they are finger pointers only. other inuit orgs are buying land and building houses with the federal money, hundreds of millions, NTI does nothing so Canada gives it to the GN who then contract with Inuit orgs who skim 20% off the top per the NNI policy. This is by design. NTI takes no flack for not being involved and then pockets cash through it’s complicated web of subsidiaries and onion companies who bid on the work. The naievity is staggering from this housing advocate. The last I checked the Nunavut Agreement doesn’t promise free housing, and social issues are a joint responsibility of Inuit and government to tackle. This is basic foundational knowledge that federal bureaucrats should learn when drafting reports.
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Housing is a privilege. No where else is government this fixated on giving people free housing with no incentive to work and get off social assistance. If anyone didn’t get the memo this creates dependency and incentive for Inuit to remain on social assistance.
I’m confused how the houses that qalunaat get put in are any different than the houses Inuit get put in? As far as I know they are the same buildings and houses. Maintaining your household is key. And if you have 13 people living under one house that’s a LOT more wear and tear which means more pro-active maintenance.
P.S. We’re on our 5th year still waiting for a collapsed roof to get replaced, even with the head of housing coming into our unit to see it. Which is to say, if it is a “race thing” it’s not the race thing we think it is.
Not being able to own land is a huge barrier to inuit in nunavut. The report stated that because mortgages are tied to the owners home and not the land, homeowners can be stuck with huge debts and no capital if there is a fire or the home is seriously damaged. Remember how we voted for this.
Also the housing situation here isn’t much different than in any other impoverished area in canada, the only difference is that in the rest of canada you get evicted and thrown in the streets if you don’t pay your rents.
Having an equity lease is practically the same as owning a lot in fee simple. Whether you own the land or have a perpetually renewing 30 year $1/year lease with the city makes no difference if your house burns down and you don’t have insurance (usually a condition of any mortgage).
For anyone that is saying Inuit should go back to pre-colonial times, why don’t southers return to the south
A lot are leaving Nunavut, for a varietyof reasons, including the type of attitude that you exhibit. Be careful what you wish for. But I am sure you will be quick to complain about health Center closures, understaffed classrooms, sporadic retail and postal services, lack of cargo handlers at the airport, etc. Things are going to get a lot worse. Pretty soon all that will remain is xenophobia.
Ah, and there it is, the ‘go back where you came from’.
Thank you for highlighting it, not that any reminder is needed, anyone who has spent any time in Nunavut will encounter it regularly.
It works both ways. When Inuit are not happy with the service that we are receiving, we are quickly told to go back to pre colonial times by non inuit
Yes, but one is racist, the other is ignorant.
Guess where your comment is?
The service you are receiving is off the back of southerners. Those tax dollars from the federal government are from southern Canada. A Nunavut residence costs significantly more tax dollars per person than any other territory or province by a mile.
You can start to understand why some are starting to feel like they don’t want to toss more of their money into the perpetual cycle of destruction that is Nunavut. The endless cycle of tossing money as the lowest employment territory, a territory that can’t help itself, people unable to help themselves, unable to even bother cleaning their free social housing. I don’t personally want my money to go into the pit funding fully capable humans that choose to do nothing, but there’s little choice in the matter and so I and many others want people to change first before more money is tossed at problems.
People need to take care of what they have and eliminate this cycle, this cycle that teaches children they also don’t have to respect anything in Nunavut. Kid parents, acting like kids, and not raising the kids they are having.
Nothing will change unless people and attitudes change. When grocery stores across the entire territory need to bring in and house southern workers because you can’t get people in social housing sitting on social media all day in bed to get up and stock a shelf you are not going to see much change. What does it say to your children that you can’t be bothered to do anything? What do you think they’re going to grow up and aspire to do? Is it surprising that attendance for Inuit students is often sub 50% at school? No, it’s not rocket science, they see mom and dad not going to work, why should they go to school?
People have to change, set an example for the next generation, that’s how you actually free yourself from the cycle.
When people are actively complaining about “colonialism”, suggesting that the dissatisfied return to pre-colonial living is hardly ignorant.
So this is bulls@#$_ story it’s all about world money can u bring it when you die ? I’m ASKING
No but you can spend it while your alive
Before the advent of modern medical science people would blame all ailments on nebulous, imaginary things like demons and humours. People would pray and pray and pray but no matter how pious people were the plagues and boils persisted until people started washing and using antiseptics.
Colonialism is now our demons and bad humours.
Absolutely, nebulous forces that demand explanation, yet their invocation is left unquestioned, as self evident as god to Anselm.
At least we all know since this report will not be listened to in 2 or 3 years time when the next report come out… again no… one… will… listen… to it….
Solving our issues with colonial money and colonial ideas would be an uncomfortable precedent for NTI to set. They are not productive people themselves so they would rather keep suing and talking. If they made Nunavut a place worth living in they might have to compete with people who can actually do their jobs.
Houses are disgusting, rundown, mould ridden because of the tenants that have resided in them.
Holes don’t naturally occur all over a home, windows don’t magically leave themselves open letting a room fill with snow, messes don’t clean themselves up.
Why do we dance around the fact that no matter how nice the home is, if a tenant is going to trash it, which is the case for a large portion, the house will go to a deplorable condition.
There’s no respect for housing, there’s no respect for what isn’t yours here in Nunavut. It’s fostered right from the age of childhood with Nunavut having the highest per capita crime rate in Canada. You can’t build things in the communities anymore that isn’t Iqaluit and not expect them to get trashed by children nearly immediately these days. That attitude carries forward into adulthood, eventually these kids get into the social housing system and they trash their own home.
People need to change well before you start tossing more free housing out there or the cycle will continue and we will be having this same conversation over and over and over. But, I think Nunavut is happy to be a welfare state, so I suspect we will be having this conversation over and over.
GN should be blasted, it’s their level of inaction that has brought us to where we are at now.
From my experience I know that Labrador Nunatsiavut has taken the back seat since forever. Things that others regions would find unacceptable it takes in as the normal everyday. Hear the people saying in the news clips that with a little fixing up and they would be okay where they are staying. It is a bit shocking to hear the authenticity of the people residing in Nain.
Our esteemed leader takes the prize this week for the most ridiculous quote. Inuit have been fighting for decades to fix housing you say? Utter nonsense.
Individual Inuit have been fighting for decades to improve their own housing situations, for which Kotierk can take no credit. Similarly, Inuit involved in public groups like Housing Associations and the Housing Corporation have also been making herculean personal efforts.
Our Inuit Orgs though? Come on.
The actual Inuit Org strategy for decades has been to avoid spending a dime on Inuit housing. It has always been the view that if Inuit money gets spent on housing, government would just spend less. Whether this is right or wrong, this is the reality.
If NTI could get its act together, we could be well on our way to ending the housing crisis in Nunavut without any need for intervention from Ottawa.
Mary River mine, at a higher rate of iron production, would pay NTI large enough royalties for them to make a serious dent in the housing situation in Nunavut. NTI owns significant mineral rights. That is NTI’s lever to actually change things. Not lawsuits or pity politics, which relies on the actions of others.
As we have seen with years of NIRB hearing drama, NTI has thus far failed to use the resources it has available to better the lives of Inuit. Connect the dots. If Inuit Orgs say they are fighting for Inuit Housing, it is clear they are just not fighting hard or smart enough.
Millions of dollars sitting in many organizations for training.
Education is available, trades training is available but very few in any takers.
How did Inuks survive before? I think it was through initiative, adaptation and skills that allowed them to survive. What happened to it?
It looks like the Nunavut experiment has failed.
If only southerners overstaying their welcome in Nunavut was the main problem. It isn’t. It is all our youth starting to move to Ottawa, Winnipeg and Edmonton. It is a trickle now that in a decade will turn into a flood. Inuit need to seriously focus on making things better up here for our next generation, because they are already voting on Nunavut conditions with their feet.
The problem is not complaints about services, it’s the manipulative and cynical use of an idea like ‘colonialism’ as a catchall.
yes, a lot of people are always complaining about colonialism. yet inuit have there own government in place. and yet continue to look to the FED and southern tax payer taxes to fund everything. As far as NTI goes. they should change their attitude and step up to the batters plate. Put 200 million on the table towards housing.
it was’nt so long ago that the FED gave Nunavut 55 million to build houses. they called it the housing trust and it was run out of NHC. they got a token inuit to be president of the trust who had no construction, logistical, estimating, managerial or accounting background. On top of it the trust plan was extremely flawed, it ended in a total disaster. Material left all over the territory sitting in the pools of water. Not sure if anyone did a post review of the trust which says what anyone learned if anything. So back to the trough for more cash.
One other small detail. The FED just came out with their budget. Looks like providing nunavut with cash for housing is not in their view. maybe the well has dried up and they have other broader priorities.
Government of Nunavut needs to address this with NHC, NHC is a crown corporation under the GN, when NHC does not meet requirements GN can easily change the management or LOR.
NHC has staff that has been there a little too long and only seem to be coming into work for the income but not to make any change for the betterment .
Local housing associations in the communities are under the NHC, NHC funds the operational for these LHO. Why can’t NHC ensure that LHO Managers follow up with the Foreman’s to ensure servicemen are attending to the work orders and that these units are properly maintain instead of avoiding the issue .
I see a lot of the servicemen hired or casuals hired have criminal record, which they all should be clear of due to the fact that the public housing units in these communities are where the actual work place are for these servicemen as they attend to the work order , these PH tenants have children and should be clear and kept away from criminals.
Last but not least, these servicemen aren’t keeping the units maintained to standards as they are too busy driving around looking for polar bears, or driving their family around to run errands!!
maybe start putting hard working people in public housing units before the career welfare people who pay 60/m in rent , always the social assistance people put in public housing first.
Please bring back the HAP House and Access Units programs. They helped many families get out of public housing and become homeowners. That creates open spots for public housing units while others are being built. It also gives some sort of hope to people.
” got a token inuit to be president of the trust”
Its Inuk in the singular, and it has be to be capitalized at all times. For someone who asks so smart, they clearly do not know both the language they are writing it, and the subject they are writing about.
whatever alex….my point was clearly made, and its not asks its acts. clearly you have the same problem.
GN politician, “I am very sorry for the failure, I accept the responsibility. Let’s move on.”
You propose electing Inuit engineers, doctors, etc to lead. First point, where are all those well educated Inuk leaders. Second point, no doubt they are, if they exist, Southern educated. Third point , why would they want to get involved in politics.
I wonder why no one asks why there’s such a grave dependency on social housing. This must be the most disproportionate dependency vs renters/owners in Canada. Where is the private market that GN pushed for when they decided to outsource govt units to “bolster the economy”. It would be nice to see the GN buy their own properties again and let the private market follow trends that reflect the cost of living up here rather than charging 5k for a one bedroom to compete with the bids the GN put in.
Why is it always “the government won’t give us housing” “the govt won’t build more social housing” and never “we make an immense amount of children we can’t house or care for”. Why do people persist in having kids when they themselves don’t have a place to live and how is their decision the responsibility of the Canadian government?
So you want them to give up their careers for politics? What a brutal idea…
The federal government keeps giving NTI hundreds of million for housing and for other projects but NTI keeps doing as little as possible and just looks to play victim.
With the Liberal/NDP government throwing hundreds of millions at NTI why are they pretending to be victims?
We are not dumb, we see what you are doing NTI and you have done a terrible job with all the funds you received. Time for changes at NTI.
Duuuhhh, is NTI in charge of the GN, is NTI the lead for everything in Nunavut, do we even have a GN anymore
Of course not Sam, but the feds have thrown hundreds of millions to NTI for housing and what has NTI done with all those funds?
We will wait for your answer.
Hey Nunatsiaq news! Can you do some investigating on when NTI received hundreds of million for the federal government as we are hearing more about this but there is little to no information about this, no one at NTI response when asked to get a update regarding this.
RIAs have started to receive some housing funds from NTI, why is there so little information about this?
I think Nunavut beneficiaries would appreciate getting more updates about this and other things that NTI might be doing or not doing.
Housing can’t even come around to replacing my door. Which I called in for years ago.
Buy your own house?
😱 GASP!!!
That requires work!! (Sarcasm)
How dare you!!!
Reconciliation!!! (More Sarcasm)
Qabloonaaq owe me!!🤪🤣
(Hilarious)