Housing shortage may leave many GN positions unfilled

PATRICIA D’SOUZA

About two-thirds of the job openings listed by the government of Nunavut are currently not eligible for staff housing.

As a result, says Doug Workman, president of the Nunavut Employees Union, a lot of positions are not being filled.

Ten GN employment ads — one for 10 correctional officers at Baffin Correctional Centre — carry bold lines of type indicating that the positions are ineligible for housing.

According to Ron McCormick, director of corrections and community justice, the positions were casual jobs that have been made into full-time jobs. Despite the lack of housing, he says, “we’re managing to get people.”

In addition to the correctional officers, BCC is also advertising for an assistant director of corrections, and the department of justice is looking for several youth officers. The departments of finance, sustainable development and intergovernmental affairs have also posted openings. None of these positions offer housing.

But with Nunavut’s tight housing market, job-hunters have little hope of finding a place to live if they don’t have a guarantee of staff housing.

“Housing didn’t seem to be a problem a year or two ago,” said Workman. At that time, he said, the GN was working at less than full capacity. Since then, the government has grown exponentially and the extra units the GN once had have all been filled.

“They knew full well before April 99 what the full complement of the workforce would be,” Workman said. “They’re sending a real mixed message.’

The main reason for the shortage, Workman said, is the GN’s goal of a decentralized workforce. Spreading its employees across Nunavut’s 26 communities would reduce the housing impact on Iqaluit. But there have been serious delays in the decentralization project and, as a result, many GN jobs destined for other communities have remained in Iqaluit.

The 1996 selloff of housing owned by the government of the Northwest Territories didn’t help either.

Another reason, said McCormick, is the GN’s commitment to hire more Inuit employees. “There’s a huge incentive to hire Inuit,” he said, adding that a number of Inuit employees working either full-time or on a casual basis for the department of corrections an justice have their own housing.

Still, the housing shortage in Iqaluit and outlying communities is as great for Inuit as it is for job-seekers from outside Nunavut.

“To think that you’d fill all those jobs from the people here in town is dreaming,” Workman adds. There are many positions that can’t currently be filled by Nunavut residents, such as nurses, doctors and engineers, he said.

The union office receives about two or three calls a day from people who want to know about the job possibilities in Nunavut. They want to know the salary and benefits that accompany certain jobs and, when Workman tells them the job does not come with an offer of housing, they want to know the cost of living. He tells them what’s available on the private market, and that if they’re lucky, they’ll be paying $1,400 for a one-bedroom apartment. And that, undoubtedly, convinces many not to apply.

“I question the Nunavut government’s employment intentions,” Workman said. “It’s hard to know who’s captaining the boat.”