Housing corporation busy identifying possible lots for development
Close to 2 dozen parcels flagged across Rankin Inlet and Arviat
Chrystal Fuller of Brighter Community and the Nunavut Housing Corp. team met with the Arviat hamlet council from July 5 to 8. Arviat was one of the 10 communities the housing corporation is visiting this summer as part of the goal to build 3,000 houses in Nunavut by 2030. (Photo courtesy of Nunavut Housing Corp.)
This story was updated on Friday, July 12, at 12:30 p.m. ET.
The Nunavut Housing Corp. has identified several parcels of land in Rankin Inlet and Arviat that could become lots for future housing.
The corporation hired planning and consulting company Brighter Community to tour 10 hamlets across the territory, starting July 2. The delegation includes representatives from the Nunavut Housing Corp., Department of Community and Government Services, NCC Land Development Lt.D. and the Lands for Homes Initiative.
The team is now in Baker Lake, after visiting Rankin Inlet and Arviat.
The purpose of the tour is to identify and secure lots in the communities for the 2025 construction year. This will help the housing corporation meet its Nunavut 3000 goal.
“We’ve managed to meet our land needs for 2025,” Chrystal Fuller said about how the first two stops went, in a phone interview from Baker Lake on Monday. Fuller is the owner and principal of Brighter Community.
The Nunavut government and Nunavut Housing Corp. announced Nunavut 3000 in 2022, as a response to housing shortages across the territory.
As an example of the need for more housing, 35 per cent of Nunavut homes do not have enough bedrooms for their occupants, compared to five per cent nationally, according to a 2020 report by Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.
Nunavut Housing Corp. and NCC Development Ltd. are directly responsible for construction of close to half of all the planned houses with around 1,400 public housing units across Nunavut.
The entire project is estimated to cost $2.6 billion, with $900 million coming from the private sector and the rest covered by governments and Inuit organizations.
By touring the communities, the housing corporation is trying to “de-risk” the project, Fuller said.
The team was able to identify eight to 10 appropriate lots in Rankin Inlet and 12 to 14 in Arviat during this tour.
They will apply for land leases, and in the fall the hamlets’ councils are expected to issue development permits for the lots.
It is yet to be determined what kind of housing and how many units will be built on each of those lots.
Before starting the tour, Fuller’s team pre-identified potential lots they would evaluate during the trip.
“Then we go out and we have engineers and construction experts look at the lots from a variety of points of view,” she said.
“Is it big enough? Is it easily accessible? Are the roads built? Are the power poles in? How much fill would be required?”
Many of the pre-identified lots were dismissed as unacceptable after those evaluations, Fuller said.
“You don’t ever want to have the construction crew get there and you find out that somebody has built a shed on it or it’s an important community location for some reason or another,” she said, adding that would create extra costs and, most crucially, delays.
“It is important to try to avoid any delays in the construction process,” Fuller said. “The window for construction in Nunavut is very short.”
The Nunavut Housing Corp. still plans to visit seven communities during this summer’s tour. This is where they plan to head next:
Nunavut Housing Corp. is visiting 10 hamlets across Nunavut from July 2 to 19 (Image created by Arty Sarkisian)
- Kugluktuk, July 11-12
- Cambridge Bay, July 11-12
- Gjoa Haven, July 12-13
- Taloyoak, July 13-15
- Arctic Bay, July 15-17
- Pangnirtung, July 17-18
- Kinngait, July 18-19
Clarification: This story has been updated the include all members of the delegation on the Nunavut community tour.
Total waste of time and money sending a consultant group,, someone do the work and find out who this group is linked too. The cost of travel alone would build a house or 2. The only way to fix this problem is to build all houses down south and ship them in end of story, local contractors are too greedy, quote one price then are not held accountable for increases so pass them over, mulco them.,
It’s another Nova Scotia contractor hired by the President of NHC. He needs to hand out these favours while he has a bit of power so when he tries heading back there again he has a soft place to land.
Can residents of these communities buy lots?
ahaaa… we aren’t allowed to own anything, the mystic ideology that indigenous people shared ownership traps this world in perpetual poverty.
So 2.6 billion for public housing with 900 million covered by the private sector and the rest covered by governments and Inuit organizations (basically our tax dollars at work) So how does this money get recovered? Will this public housing be free like most other housing up here?
This is the GN in action. The GN is now identifying lots for the 2025 build year, which is next year. You’re telling me the GN now only realizes we can’t put up homes where there’s zero developed land available, where municipalities don’t have the capacity for more water and sewer, where QEC has no poles / power distribution.
The Kitikmeot for instance outside Cam Bay has very little yellow equipment , sufficient quarry materials produced already or even a crusher in some of those communities to make materials to even build lots for the 2025 build year.
This should have been done 5+ years ago.
This is some of the most incompetent planning I have ever seen. How were lots not already designed and ready to be put in place BEFORE even considering NU3000. There’s an order of operations here and it takes a long time for lots to be developed, municipalities to have the correct capacity for municipal services and QEC to put in new distribution lines and poles, if they even have the generator capacity to power a bunch of new units.
This is honestly sad when you think about how poorly planned things have been. Tax dollars at work.
Yeah, well just take a site visit on existing Mathbox houses across Nunavut still used today built 50’s, 60, and 70’s. Notice this third world trend under the Minister of Housing? What’s all this publicity stunts!?!
totally flabbergasted…..make Nunavut broke evemn more…
what a misuse of funds. why not call hamlet to ask if land available
Should they not also be identifying lots for 2026 to 2030 as well? Are they going to do this junket every year? Who are the engineers and construction experts on the trip?
If the government takes all the suitable lots, where is the private sector boing to build the remaining 1,600 houses they are responsible to construct? NN maybe add some analysis. This just sounds like a low news day.
“35 per cent of Nunavut homes do not have enough bedrooms for their occupants, compared to five per cent nationally, according to a 2020 report …”
The comment, (mainly in reference to public housing) is fairly valid. On the other hand, many public housing are underoccupied due to poor housing-analysis and because of nepotism and similar factors.