Feds embellish on housing numbers

Kelvin Ng, the minister responsible for the Nunavut Housing Corp., admitted this week that this month’s promise of new federal funding for public housing will not build 400 units, as federal government ministers have been saying.

“Those numbers in federal press releases were not realistic given our construction costs in Nunavut,” he said in response to a question by Iqaluit Centre MLA Hunter Tootoo.

Peter Scott, president of the housing corporation, told Nunatsiaq News last week that the number is closer to 160 units.

Ng confirmed that the money will go entirely toward the construction of the units. The GN will pay for the operation and maintenance.