Housing shortage ‘directly impacts’ education: Nunavik school board
Kativik Ilisarniliriniq cites need for 150 units, which would require an estimated $330 million to build
Kativik Ilisarniliriniq officials point to the housing shortage as cause for many problems in Nunavik’s education system. (File photo by Sarah Rogers)
A housing shortage in Nunavik is impacting teacher recruitment, employee retention and education directly, compromising student chances for academic success, says a representative for Kativik Ilisarniliriniq, the region’s school board.
Several Nunavik organizations, including the school board, met with the Quebec government Feb. 3 at the Kuujjuaq Northern Village auditorium to discuss the housing shortage in the region.
“The housing shortage in Nunavik affects the entire population and has a huge impact on the education sector,” said Harriet Keleutak, director general for Kativik Ilisarniliriniq, in a statement sent to Nunatsiaq News.
She said difficult choices must be made when it comes to recruiting employees, such as asking them to share housing with colleagues, cutting certain services or keeping positions vacant.
This, Keleutak said, contributes to inequalities.
For example, a full-time student support position in Kuujjuaq cannot be filled this year due to the lack of housing.
“These [inequalities] have persisted since the creation of Kativik Ilisarniliriniq,” Keleutak said.
A 2017 report by the Senate’s Standing Committee on Aboriginal Peoples of Canada says the housing crisis affects students, too.
Students can experience a lack of sleep and inability to do homework due to inadequate space at home, which can cause them to fall behind in their studies.
Keleutak said the issues cited in the 2017 report are still relevant today.
“When all the rooms in a house are shared by several residents belonging to multiple generations, it is difficult, if not impossible, to isolate oneself to study or do homework,” she said.
“If one of the residents of the house goes through a difficult time or faces health problems, all residents are affected.”
According to information provided by Kativik Ilisarniliriniq, the school board manages more than 400 housing units. It houses employees recruited from outside the region, or employees from Nunavik hired to work in another community.
As of January, the board is in need of 150 more units to compensate for the shortage.
“This reality is specific to the education sector in Nunavik and it has significant budgetary consequences for Kativik Ilisarniliriniq,” said Jeannie Dupuis, assistant director general for the school board, in an email statement.
“Not only do we have to build infrastructure on an ongoing basis, but we must also maintain a large housing stock in an isolated environment where equipment, expertise and materials are not readily available.”
The minimum cost to build a housing unit is $2.2 million, said the statement from Kativik Ilisarniliriniq. The school board typically groups housing units together to minimize the cost, which is why they mainly build four-plexes to house employees.
This means the board’s current need of 150 units would require an estimated $330 million to build.
The school board also has a maintenance backlog of $292.4 million as of the end of the 2023-24 school year, said the statement.
Quebec’s education ministry provides $30 million a year for building repairs.
At that rate it will take 10 years to reduce this maintenance backlog to zero, without accounting for the expected wear and tear incurred over that time.
The provincial education ministry launched an investigation in February 2024 into Kativik Ilisarniliriniq’s governance administration after the school board lamented $26 million in debt its leadership said at the time was caused by inadequate funding.
The school board’s council of commissioners last met in December where they were briefed by the education ministry about a completed version of the report. They requested more time for analysis, pending receipt of the Inuktitut version.
In March, the commissioners are set to have a follow-up meeting to discuss the recommendations, according to meeting highlights published on Kativik Ilisarniliriniq’s website.
“Housing shortage ‘directly impacts’ education: Nunavik school board”
Lack of housing affects quality of life in many ways, including success with formal education, embracing emotional learning, having good physical health, and achieving personal status in one’s community. Over the millennia, individuals as well as communities have overcome adversity just the same; in fact, most have thrived because of it.
The School Board and media don’t help, with their grandstanding, lack of technical expertise, dependence on outside guidance, and lack of ability to provide oversight of that guidance.
In the article, we are told that there are 400 School Board housing units spread throughout the region. Then we are told there is a maintenance deficit of $292 million which translates to $730,000 of repairs needed per unit.
The ‘budget’ is further obscured by the announced need for 150 more units, a nearly 40% increase in inventory – this time at a cost of $330 million ($2.2 million per unit).
Even if one accepts the likely incorrect ‘announced’ figures both for inventory and costs due to lack of insight or oversight, how does one give credibility to anything else this article or the School Board describes?
remeber quite a few months ago this organizations was being investigated for misuse of spending in the amount of 200 million plus dollars. this organization with the help of the unions and the folks who are hired from the south really do know how to take advantages of the Inuit way of life in Nunavik. using the Inuit as one of their pawns so they can get what they believe is right for the Nunavik Inuit. i guess you can’t find employment in the south, move to the north and create more jobs for friends and family members while belittling the Inuit children.
I appreciate your comments, ‘flabbergasted’, so I’d lije to support you on this one. However, this is not a South taking advantage of North phenomenon; this is about those with influence and access making a mess of lives through a combination of incompetence and malfeasance. We see the same behavior in Ottawa with the current government and with all levels of government and NGOs around the world. It has been going on for time immortal. It’s getting worse every year. You know that too.
Ppl in authority are just finding this out? Shame. Where are BAs, Masters, Phd s? Shame.
KI is failing us. From fake diplomas to mismanagement of funds to giving greater opportunities to non-locals in admin, teaching and even labor. Even their vocational students don’t get too far in their field never reaching foreman. The Qc education ministry has allowed this. KI has failed us. Its not run by Inuit and if it actually is, are we hurting ourselves? Have we created a failed system to even hold ourselves up?… is that how colonizers want it so they can take over and call Nunavik home, become beneficiaries? We gave up our land so southerners can thrive in our towns. We have lost. We remain 2nd class citizens where even the 3rd world counties pity us.
The money from the James Bay Agreement money should have been used to house and educate the beneficiaries. If that money had been used to serve the Inuit of Nunavik, there would be Inuit doctors and dentists, engineers and geologists. And Canadian North would have close to 100 percent Inuit employees.
I think reality is much more complex than this honestly.