The Uquutaq Society received $10 million in funding from the federal government for its Butler housing project at 803 Aiviq St. in Iqaluit. A conceptual image illustrates what the interior will look like. (Photo courtesy of Laurel McCorriston/Uquutaq Society)
Federal government funnels $13M into Iqaluit housing
Three organizations benefit from the funding
Three Iqaluit housing projects received a financial shot in the arm this month totalling nearly $13 million.
The recipients are the Uquutaq Society, for its Butler housing project; Pairijiit Tigummiaqtikkut (the Iqaluit Elders Society), for its elder housing project; and YWCA Agvik Nunavut, for new apartments in Apex.
The money flows from a $281.5-million fund announced in the 2022 federal budget to address Indigenous housing needs through Indigenous Services Canada.
National Indigenous Collaborative Housing Inc., an Indigenous-led national non-profit housing organization established in December 2022, is the arm’s-length administrator of the money.
The non-profit organization announced the funding Oct. 23 in a news release.
Uquutaq Society gets the lion’s share of the money — $10 million for its Butler housing project at 803 Aiviq St. The Butler project will add 27 single-occupancy rooms to downtown Iqaluit, including laundry facilities, a shared kitchen and covered parking.
Laurel McCorriston, Uquutaq’s out-going executive director, said the federal contribution builds on $2.7 million the society had already received from the territorial government as part of its Nunavut 3000 fund.
The total price tag for the Butler project will end up at around $30 million, McCorriston said.
To that end, the society is preparing a capital plan this winter.
“We’re committed to the build, so it’s going to happen,” she said. “It depends on when we have it fully funded, so we shouldn’t announce a date.”
Pairijiit Tigummiaqtikkut received just over $560,000 to start developing plans for an elders’ housing project, including what the design for the 45-unit building will look like, said Anne Crawford, an Iqaluit lawyer working with the elders society.
The organization has already secured land for the building beside DJ’s Convenience Store in the 300s area of the city.
YWCA Agvik Nunavut’s building, the Tumikuluit Saipaaqivik daycare at house 3044 in Apex, in contrast is near completion, said executive director Sherri Robertson. She said the non-profit organization plans to offer apartments for rent above the daycare.
The organization received the remainder of the federal funds — approximately $2.4 million — which it used to solicit further help from the Department of Education, which contributed to the cost, along with additional support from the federal government.
So far, $277.8 million has been distributed to 75 projects across the country aimed at building more than 3,800 units, said Justin Prest, communications manager for National Indigenous Collaborative Housing Inc.
$30 million for 27 single occupancy rooms… why not just give 27 people their own mortgage-free brand new 3 bedroom houses and save $7 million?
I agree, far too many mouths at the table now in building in general across Canada but especially NU where consultants who know exactly how easy it is to exploit the government and various organizations.
But, with all that said, a 3 bedroom single detached home now to build in NU is pushing 1.3-1.5M and that’s for nothing special. I tried looking to builds in an attempt to utilize NHC’s new Hap 2.0 and the 250K didn’t make anything feasible.
I don’t know what we’re supposed to do. Band together with a bunch of individuals who all want to live in an 18 plex building for build efficiency in efforts to reduce cost and ll try to use HAP 2.0. Obviously that isn’t happening, nor would anyone want to do that, people don’t enjoy living in row-housing.
Single detached dream is dead unless you find a reasonably priced older one on the market. Even then now those are 800k- 1.2M in IQ for a 3 bedroom….
I know what you can do. Quit your job, become homeless, and then grab a $1.1M bed over at Uquutaq’s new facility. A lot of struggling taxpayers paying for facilities for the jobless that look a lot nicer than my own house.
I haven’t given up on HAP2 yet. But then, I’m not as far along in the process as you seem to have gotten. My intent is to do almost all the work myself.
I’m curious about your costing. How did you get to $1.3 million? Perhaps I’m missing something. The only costing I’m getting from NHC is the material contribution.
I am not in a position to do all the work myself. All work is contracted out at that 1.3m price. If you’re able to and meet modern code I’m sure it can be done vastly cheaper but most of us who can afford the upkeep on a home to begin with have full time day jobs with kids.
Certainly not saying it’s not possible for some but for an officer worker with minimal carpentry, mechanical, electrical and plumbing skillsets, kids and a day job it’s rough.
This is the problem with the tender and contract system with Nunavut. It all comes down to the way the GN decides on projects within the government that takes way too long to implement, cost way too much, while on top of all that the GN does not help build capacity in Nunavut which should be one of their top priorities which would help in the long run to build more infrastructure for less and to build more.
GN with all their resources (funds) has just one trades school in Rankin, non in the other two regions.
Construction companies that work in Nunavut laugh all they way to the bank while building social housing that are not adequate or good quality, most times they are not inspected.
We have so many issues with our territorial government all the while they think so highly of themselves. With that kind of attitude things will not change at the GN
What a waste of money. No way that, that building is 30 million dollars. some construction company is getting a juicy profit off of that one
Probably NCC
Over a million bucks for a single room! This gotta be a scam getting on for the scale of the ArriveCan app. That supplier had what passed for Indigenous “ownership” and then charged the government at an hourly rate of $2,600.
I have a question – Does any of the people work who will be receiving all this free housing, seems to me, all these millions of dollars are going to jobless people who will never be made to pay any of this money back. What is the point? So many new buildings going up around Iqaluit and planned to build, yet none of the money will be repaid. Looks like the people who work and pay huge taxes are footing the bill AGAIN. FML
Is Iqaluit the only community in Nunavut? I think there are 23 others that could have used the money more than Iqaluit.
So much more federal funding the last few years, GN got hundreds of million for housing, NTI got hundreds of millions for housing, million and millions for other infrastructure projects and programs,
I don’t think we have seen this much money before for Nunavut from the feds,
Too bad an election is coming up soon, the other guy is itching to make cuts and I’m sure we will not see this amount anytime soon.
It’s too bad NTI has been sitting on hundreds of millions from the feds for a few years now, they could of got a lot done and show the feds that this funding is badly needed, instead NTI has done very little. This doesn’t show the feds that we can build houses or infrastructure and I’m sure they will use this in the future to show, look we gave you all this funding and most of it was sent back.
Not good.