Comments pour in after Nunavut MP asks about housing wait-lists
Lori Idlout’s Facebook post flooded with comments after she asks Nunavummiut for their experiences
Jasmine Nagiyak, right, has been on the public housing waiting list for nearly six years, she says. She is currently living in overcrowded housing. She is seen here with her husband Simon Enuapik Jr. and her two-year-old daughter Monica Nagiyak. (Photo courtesy of Jasmine Nagiyak)
“I’ve been on the waiting list for 11 years.”
“I waited 10 years to get a two bedroom.”
“I applied when I turned 18; I’m turning 30 in six months.”
These are just a small sampling of the more than 700 comments that flooded in under a Feb. 2 Facebook post from Nunavut MP Lori Idlout, asking Nunavummiut how many of them had been on a housing waiting list and for how long.
Jasmine Nagiyak has been on the waiting for nearly six years, she said Thursday. She also commented on Idlout’s post.
“I just want the best for me and my daughter and my partner to have our own place to call home,” she said.
Nagiyak, her husband Simon Enuapik Jr. and their two-year-old daughter Monica Nagiyak have been living between Whale Cove and Arviat for the past two years, since her daughter was born. They recently moved in with Enuapik’s family in Whale Cove, where they share a three-bedroom with seven other people.
Prior to this living situation, the family lived with Nagiyak’s mother in Arviat with six other people in a two-bedroom home.
Nagiyak said living in overcrowded housing can strain finances and cause family problems.
“It’s hard for me to talk about it,” she said.
Idlout said in an interview that she was surprised by the flood of responses to her query.
The federal government announced in January a plan to build 750 homes in the territory in co-ordination with the Government of Nunavut and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.
Idlout said that’s not enough to solve Nunavut’s housing shortage.
“What would be enough,” she said, “is guarantees that housing will be funded on a permanent basis to housing needs right now.”
The federal government’s current funding model for the territory does not include any specific allocation to housing, Idlout said.
“There is not enough funding in the first place and that’s why we’ve ended up in this scenario where we’ve got hundreds and hundreds of people that have been on waiting lists for [decades],” she said.
Former Nunavut premier P.J. Akeeagok announced the territorial government’s plan in 2022 to alleviate the housing shortage. Called Nunavut 3000, the goal was to build 3,000 units by 2030 for $2.6 billion. The federal government’s January announcement will count toward this goal.
Over 60 per cent of Nunavummiut live in public housing. Nearly half of those homes — 45 per cent — are considered to be overcrowded, according to a May 2025 report from the auditor general of Canada.
The auditor general’s report stated there were 3,348 applicants on the wait list for housing as of March 2025.
According to data provided by the Nunavut Housing Corp. on Friday, the average wait time for a home is five-plus years. As of Dec. 31, there are 3,715 applicants on a waiting list, representing an increase of 367 applications from the auditor general’s numbers.
Of the 3,715 applicants waiting for homes in Nunavut, 385 have been waiting for 10 years or more.
Housing Minister Cecile Nelvana Lyall was not available for an interview.
I wonder how much the people who have waited 10 years or more have saved toward a down-payment in that time?
I wonder how many people can afford a down payment when there are no job opportunities for most Inuit. Social income are rules are strict! People can’t use money to build businesses or any other way they can improve their situation.
but they can sure use that money for alcohol drugs gambling or cigarettes right? Ever look at how the town is the few days after social assistance pay outs.
There are tons of opportunities in the Mining sector, people have to be motivated to go to work and keep jobs, yea it sucks being away from home but sometimes sacrifices need to be made in order to give your family a better quality of life, they are a good stepping stone to building skills and getting an opportunity for training to go into different jobs
Nobody can save that much in ARV with Northern and HH around, legalized robbery. Never seen such a greedy, ruthless, retailers. Somebody pic their prices and post it on tiktok, unbelievable.
What happened to ur Coop?
“But we don’t have a home to start a family”….”It’s okay, lets have 10 kids, going to be a realllllly goood child tax, we can all the pop we want”!!
The tale of the tape in every Nunavut home. Now get stories of the parents that have been looking after 25 grand kids, lets get their side of the story! I can read it already,,,”We are going to have another baby”!! “”””AGAIN, where are they going to sleep? There’s 30 of us in here already!!””””!!!!!!!
People don’t plan to have ten kids, this comment is rich coming from a fellow Inuk! stop blaming the people that live in those conditions, if you read the story correctly, people live with their parents that are in their 30s to 40s even with wife and kids, plus there siblings that also have partners and children. Over crowding is a real issue, housing is a big issue, that comes with people not having job opportunities, children can’t concentrate on school work cause there no privacy. I can go on!
Many people choose to remain quiet and respectful rather than go to the media, and unfortunately those are often the very people who get passed over. When housing decisions consistently favour relatives of board members or staff, it raises serious concerns about fairness and transparency.
Housing allocations should be based on genuine need, length of wait, and community stability—not family connections or visibility.
Don’t wait until you get a spouse or have children to apply for housing. People should be applying as soon as they turn 19. That wait time matters, and it should show clearly during audits.
Those who have been on the list the longest deserve clear answers from the current TROs about why they are still waiting. Entering a relationship or having a child does not automatically entitle someone to a housing unit.
If housing is really the existential problem we constantly say it is, why have I not seen anyone being held accountable for all the housing construction project snafus, cost overruns etc?
Why are we still trying to stop people building homes in Apex?
There’s no shortage of well paid jobs in Nunavut, notably for doctors, dentists, accountants, nurses, in mining and with trade certification. With the necessary education and skills training, most people could provide their own housing.
Teachers always blame the parents and children themselves for lack of achievement. There’s some truth in that but not enough. Schools could and should do the heavy lifting to enable next generations for the real world.
In the book Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals make it harder for Blacks to succeed, black American writer Jason Riley quotes a speech by the coincidentally named Geoffrey Canada. He’s the principal of a charter school in New York. What he says here contradicts the widely accepted narrative:
“People are upset because I believe that these poor kids in Harlem, who have every social ill you can imagine, can still learn. Name one, we’ve got it. Gangs? Yes, we’ve got it. Substance abuse? Yes, we’ve got that too. Single [parent] families? Yes, we’ve got all that. Parents who don’t care? Yes, we’ve got all that. But my kids are going to go to college. And it doesn’t matter what the issues are.”
Is anyone surprised? Other then perhaps Mrs. Idlout and the NDP. The last 4 years, all Nunavummiut have heard about from the GN and NHC is Nunavut 3000. In the last 18 months this has intensified and all we have heard, seen and read talks about the failures at NHC (operationally and with Nunavut 3000, etc..), the LHO’s (dysfunctionality, lack of leadership, etc,), the Nunavut 3000 and that disastrous sole source contract with NCCD or NCC 3000 (over budget, failed delivery dates, etc..). The media coverage, the scathing AG Report and the social media coverage has been significant enough to paint a clear picture for everyone regarding the failures in Housing.
So how is it that anyone seems surprised that the waiting list for homes is up in the 3300-3600 (depending what report you read) and that some Nunavummiut have been on the list for more than a decade. Is anyone truly surprised. Did it take comments in a Facebook posting to create an epiphany? It does appear one was necessary when you consider that Mrs. Idlout has been around for 7 years in her position and Nunavummiut’s MP. Where has she been and what was she doing?
Oh, and if anyone is waiting for Mrs. Idlout or the NDP to be part of the solution to fix this problem with Housing. Please do not hold your breath.
Does the MP have the courage to be a leader for her people. Have the tough conversations that may be offensive to some people.
One of the big parts of the housing crisis is a math problem. If there is no family planning and a 16 yr old who is living in an overcrowded house already starts a family and then continues to have kids and then they have kids at 16 at the same rate you will never be able to build fast enough.
The last MP went on a housing tour and posted photos of houses in bad shape but it is hard to make the case that houses are in disrepair when no cabinet has a door left on it. This is clearly tenant damage and takes away from the resources available to build new homes.
The GN rent scale based on household income has also failed what the intent was. You can’t push people at the top of the rent scale out to buy a home if there are no homes to buy. This has just discouraged work causing other social issues.
Unless we have hard conversation we won’t fix the problem. Lori everyone know there are crazy wait times to use that to scream about not enough funding is silly. Let’s fix the route cause of the problem as there is not enough money to fix the current one. Until those conversations happen we will throw money at it and still never get enough housing.
I feel sorry for these young couples, NHC is in sad stage with poor leadership.
Always putting your fellow arviatmiut down? Maybe apply at NHC and try to help?