Lack of transparency, poor maintenance and ‘considerable challenges’ for Nunavut 3000
Auditor General’s report says only 18 new units built since the start of Nunavut 3000 in October 2022
Deputy auditor general Andrew Hayes speaks to reporters after the tabling of his office’s report on Nunavut housing in Iqaluit on Monday. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Nunavut Housing Corp. faces “considerable challenges” to meet its target of building 3,000 housing units by 2030, with only 258 public housing units since 2022.
And most of those were started under the mandate of the previous government before the Nunavut 3000 program was even announced in October 2022, a federal auditor general’s report released Monday finds.
The report, titled Public Housing in Nunavut, offers 10 recommendations to the housing corporation, and was tabled at the Nunavut legislative assembly.
The Office of the Auditor General of Canada investigated to determine whether Nunavut Housing Corp. provides Nunavummiut with “equitable access to suitable public housing” and manages the “adequacy of its public housing inventory.”
Its answer to both is, no.
“We have found that the corporation did not clearly communicate its progress toward achieving its targets and that it faces challenges in meeting them,” Andrew Hayes, the deputy auditor general, said of Nunavut 3000 during a news conference Monday at the legislature.
After the report was tabled, Nunavut Housing Corp. issued a news release reaffirming its “commitment to improved housing services.”
“The Auditor General’s findings and recommendations validate our plans to improve how NHC provides equitable access to suitable public housing for families and individuals in Nunavut,” Lorne Kusugak, the minister responsible for the Nunavut Housing Corp., said in the release.
Kusugak was absent from the legislative assembly Monday when the report was tabled. Premier P.J. Akeeagok declined to comment as he hadn’t seen the report yet, said Sima Sahar Zerehi, his chief of strategic operations.
The auditor general’s report comes as the housing corporation is about 20 months into its $2.6-billion goal to build 3,000 units in Nunavut between 2022 and 2030.
Of that total, Nunavut Housing Corp. and NCC Development Corp. are directly responsible for constructing approximately 1,400 units — a $1.2-billion public housing potion of the project.
But the housing corporation is having difficulty securing land and funding, so the Nunavut 3000 targets — including its estimated $2.6-billion price tag — will likely have to be adjusted, Hayes said without specifying what the changes might look like.
During the investigation, Nunavut Housing Corp. told the auditor general 258 public housing units have been completed as part of Nunavut 3000.
However, only 18 of those units — in a building on Siku Crescent in Iqaluit — were started after the project was announced by current government as a major pillar of its mandate.
“When the new Nunavut 3000 strategy was announced in 2022, I think it would be reasonable to expect that people would have looked at that as a promise of future construction,” Hayes said, adding the housing corporation should have been “crystal clear” with the public that that was not the case.
Meanwhile since the home-building plan was announced the number of Nunavummiut on public housing waiting lists increased to 3,348 in March 2024 from 3,123 in March 2023, the report found
As of March 31, 2024, applicants have been on the wait-list for an average of 4.5 years, the report said.
As for its existing 6,000 public units, the corporation has not “effectively managed” their condition, Hayes said.
Close to 1,900 of the units were built more than 40 years ago and about one-third of Inuit in Nunavut reported living in homes requiring major repairs, according to Statistics Canada’s 2021 census.
As well, the corporation did not follow its policy of inspecting public housing every two years, with inspections being six years old on average as of March 2024.
“Lack of preventative maintenance can lead to unsafe living conditions and increased costs in the future,” the report found.
This is the second audit in Nunavut Housing Corp.’s history.
At the time of the first report, in 2008, the corporation was in the middle of a different major house-building project — the $200-million Nunavut Housing Trust, which delivered 725 new housing units between 2006 and 2010 but ended up overspending by $60 million.
The issues surrounding Nunavut housing have largely remained the same, Hayes said.
“Obviously, when we issue recommendations and we come back and see that they haven’t been implemented, we’re disappointed and concerned about that,” he said, adding he hopes his office’s report will serve as a “launchpad” for the current and future governments to address Nunavut’s housing crisis.
Maybe this kinda guy “auditor general” can audit the amount of tax payer money waste with GN and Hamlets offices… how many people do NOTHING and make big bucks!? Take hour long breaks and leave hour early every day? Go into work to watch TikToks and Facebook gossips alladay long? This needs to be exposed as it would be a national scandal if the rest of canada only knew the truth about what really actually goes on in Nunavut!
Because this issue is way worse within the federal government, too many people “working from home” but actually spending the day doing anything but work. The GN has problems, but it’s no different across the country.
One of the biggest issues are senior management who are under qualified, incompetent and should not be in those positions, the Premier has appointed Deputy Ministers and housing President who fit this bill, totally incompetent.
The auditor general is pointing this out, this falls on the top person or persons, the minister and Premier.
History repeats itself again in Nunavut,
This happened in the past no lesson learned, start by replacing the minister, president, board of directors, and replace with people that have half clue what they are doing, the cost overruns have been hidden, and after the next election, it will come out, and like last time schools, health centres. And other projects will be cancelled.we never learn in Nunavut
Questioning if Nunavut 3000 is really making a difference and was the Premier trying to take credit for the number of units built under Nunavut 3000? Maybe his true COLORS are starting to come take any positive credit even if not real? Hopefully he is questioned on this as his photo ops of buses and housing are more of fan fare than reality…
Sure, some might see 18 units as a failure. But flip the script — if the target was 18 units by the year 3000, then PJ’s government is crushing it.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—the role of the Board of Directors is to ensure the proper use of the housing allocation point rating system, not to prioritize their own family members for housing or employment. Nepotism has no place in public housing.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation (NHC) must prioritize hiring qualified housing managers who understand their responsibilities, and experienced maintenance foremen who can respond to urgent issues like heat, plumbing, or electrical problems—especially when full-time or casual maintenance staff are unavailable.
Tenant Relations Officers (TROs) are supposed to conduct annual home inspections alongside foremen to ensure public housing units are maintained, not neglected or abused. These inspections are key to identifying needed repairs and maintaining dignity in tenants’ living conditions.
Let’s not forget the past: during the Nunavut Housing Trust, contractors were paid as if they were working full time—even while on rotation or at home. And close to $300,000 was wasted on calendars for tenants instead of investing in much-needed housing office renovations.
So I ask again:
Why is Kusugak still the Minister responsible for Housing?
Why is Mr. Devereaux president again?
Are the same directors still overseeing the regions despite these ongoing failures?
Nunavummiut deserve better. Transparency, accountability, and qualified leadership must become the standard—not the exception.
Why is Kusugak still serving as the Minister responsible for Housing despite residing in a publicly-funded, rent-free housing unit? Could his friendship with Devereaux be a factor? Why is transparency lacking within the current government, and are many members overly influenced by PJ’s effective communication skills?
Rent-free? So he pays zero dollars? That seems unlikely.
Rest assured, individuals aged 60 years and above are exempt from rent, unless prudent arrangements are made for the household to contribute accordingly. Furthermore, accommodation in the Capital is relatively inexpensive, considering the limited time spent in the office and the city; in fact, residing in a hotel would be significantly more cost-effective, thereby enabling the vacant GN unit to be allocated to a paying GN employee.
Nunavut, its people, its institutions, its all-level politicians are a perfect microcosm of what Canada has become – a corrupt, antisocial, socialist state, becoming increasingly oligarchic and on the decline culturally, socially, and intellectually.
Were you wearing a tinfoil had when you wrote this?
Nailed it S. Sad reality. Though few will notice as Nunavut cheers with submission to the king across the sea. Or see unfolding before their eyes, looking as if will be ruled like a king with our new Canadian king and Governor General in hand. Such an opposite image when Bob Dylan sang… “When the Eskimo comes.” Soon two crushing Bills, C-63 and C-11 will probably become law across the land, opening a door to be a Venezuela. While Pink Floyd, The Wall asks… “Is there anybody out there?”
“The Auditor General’s findings and recommendations validate our plans to improve how NHC provides equitable access to suitable public housing for families and individuals in Nunavut,” Lorne Kusugak, the minister responsible for the Nunavut Housing Corp., said in the release.
What plans? All I ever hear is wishes and dreams.
What was the step by step plan to build 3000 houses by 2030? Where are we in that plan?
How much money has been spent each year and where has it gone? Is it perhaps time for an RCMP investigation?
What have people been doing?
Building houses is the end goal. But to build them efficienntly in a cost-effective way, they have to be built by people who live in the community. To get to that point Nunavut must focus first on training construction workers in all 25 communities. Then we will need at least 1 construction firm in each community. What has been done in that regard?
Every new manager or someone in the top job that comes to Nunavut is always trying to re invent the wheel
Nunavut’s wheel has a flat tire.
It’s a misleading name Nunavut 3000, the GN has no plans to build 3000 homes in Nunavut, it has always been 1500, the Premier likes to dress things up to make it look better than what they are.
That’s the problem with him, as long as it looks good for him everything else does not matter.
A lot of photo ops with little to no substance, as long as it looks good but you have to look very close to see if it’s actually what it is or if it’s something else.
Like this housing project the GN had no intentions to build 3000 houses, it’s just a catchy name that makes him look good.
Glad this auditor general is pointing out all the issues with this housing project that is costing so much more with fewer housing being built.
We see the GN is in worse state today, so much dysfunction, so toxic, incompetent senior staff, all this being ignored and covered up, trying to make things look better than what they really are, in reality the GN has degraded so much in the last 4 years.
I do hope this auditor general will do more reviews on the GN and bring this to light as our Premier keeps making it look good when it’s falling apart.
Following nearly 4 years, the minister responsible for NHC and the leader of Nunavut hopefully will be held accountable for failing to fulfill their commitments, along with the House leader allowing it to be misled. This lack of accountability must finally be addressed, even though they are nearing their terms. Honest Government come already!
How is this surprising honestly. The only time the actual President of NCC announced complete units was the 18 in Iqaluit back many many months ago now and there was an article here on it. Since then he has not announced a single other complete unit. Because there is none and everyone here knew it because we live in communities and see the unfinished builds or none started at all.
Its just been NHC and PJ talking and they have just been trying to pump statistics. This issue runs so much deeper though and is not limited to housing.
Look at things like education, graduate numbers are artificially pumped each year by passing people who could not pass grade 6 elsewhere. Credits handed out for virtually doing anything.
Inuit participation percentages at mines or at the GN artificially inflated via use of “inuit” companies that are 100% run by southern companies and use a token Inuk for 51% ownership that probably has no idea what they even own.
Its all artificial to ignore the actual real picture and talking about the real world which I don’t get because everyone see’s the real world for what it is up here.
Time to stop playing pretend.
So many things wrong with housing corp.
Untangling the issues with this department. Will need a individuals who have much more mental capacity. Than present administration.
A good start would be getting rid of the local boards.
They are corrupt won’t follow policy. Overall dysfunctional.
In 2021/22 the Nunavut Public Service Act Report states that GN overall (NHC not specified) had 65% of its positions filled with warm bodies. In 2022/23, the GN does give a figure of 71% for NHC of filled positions.
So, assuming NHC has been properly staffed to administer the current stock of public housing inventory and programs, up until recently, it can be accurately said that the NHC was missing around 30% of the capacity to do that basic work.
If you add in consideration of the incompetent, corrupt, and lazy staff that everyone complains about, you will soon appreciate that NHC has a serious that capacity problem. Then sprinkle in the inevitable and very generous education, maternity, medical, paternity leaves allowed by GN, and you would guess that NHC at any given time would be severely understaffed. Then add in a random bunch of other generous medical escorting and civic leaves, IQ days, storm days, and you will quickly realize that NHC simply did not have the warm bodies on the job, with butts parked at desks, to do its core job. Let alone buy/build and maintain another 1500 units.
The only thing I would say about this, is why does the public unrealistically expect any better performance out of NHC given the state that they are in? And also, why does anyone think that firing or removing Ministers and Presidents are going to make this situation any better?
The solution so obviously is our own people, getting out of bed every morning, going to trades school or technical college, learning how to build and maintain houses, and coming back up and filling in that 30% vacancy. Then, at least, the NHC would be able to do the job they were supposed to before being handed Nunavut 3000 to accomplish also.
I think its laughable that nothing in this article that addresses the time lines necessary to actually do the work required to build these homes. If the decision was made in 2022, how long does it take to secure the materials, coordinate the sealift, drill the foundations and build the buildings. I’d assume that at a minimum this is a 2-3 year process. Easy math says 2022 plus 3 equals 2025. My question would be how many units are set to be delivered in 2025? This would be a more responsible view of the success or failure of this project. Rome wasn’t build in a Day and Nunavut lacks the resources Rome had.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. This system of public housing is not sustainable. It is too cumbersome, expensive, and difficult to manage the population to public housing unit ratio.
Elders in public housing units = boom, that house belongs to you now.
All other public housing units need to be auctioned off. Every adult aged 18 and over that has been living in that community for 1 year or longer gets the chance to purchase 1 house in that community at auction.
If a public housing unit sells for $500,000? Great.
If a public housing unit sells for $50,000? Great.
Every unit sold reduces NHC operating costs by $25,000 per year. At 6,000 units, that’s $150 million. Using population data, we can see about 40% of Nunavut’s population is under 18 years old, meaning there’s somewhere around 25,000 people in Nunavut that are 18 and older. $150 million spread over 25,000 people is $500 per month. And that could be for everyone, employed and unemployed.
At the same time, NHC would have a cash injection from selling its assets. First, let’s say that NHC sets up a temporary financial services division to sell mortgages to people in public housing because, let’s be honest, most people in public housing won’t qualify for a mortgage. Automatically pre-qualify anybody in public housing for a $50,000 mortgage before the auction, if we’re saying each person in public housing will get an extra $500 per month from the elimination of NHC’s public housing admin costs, they should be able to pay $275/month for a $50,000 mortgage. Especially if there’s 2 people in the house receiving an extra $500/month. And the GN would have that ability to take its mortgage payment directly out of social assistance.
So then let’s say that each unit it sells only sells for an average of $100,000, because some people who have jobs will buy the nicer and newer public housing units for more (which clears up more housing, either private sector or staff housing). That’s another $600 million. At NHC’s current rate of $750,000 per unit, that’s another 800 units it could build. And when you build those? Auction them off.
This would create markets. It creates a private housing market, private rental market, it creates an economic environment for private companies in maintenance, repair, and renovation. And probably most importantly, it builds individual wealth. The wealth gap between homeowners and non-homeowners is massive. Owning a home is the single greatest determinant of wealth. As those new homeowners pay down their mortgage, they build equity. They can use that equity in a HELOC or refinancing to complete renovations to their house. To make it more valuable, to continue to build more equity. As those people get older and pass away, their children inherit that wealth which helps to give them a financial boost to build their own wealth. Fewer children grow up in poverty. More children go to school happy and healthy. More students attend post-secondary education.
I think it would be cheaper for NHC to give away the houses for free to current tenants, then they do not have to maintain and/or repair them.
The current tenants would not be able to afford the upkeep on these units.
Take it away from NCC who was given this contract? They clearly didn’t deliver and something is fishy if NHC just practically gave NCC this contract?
NCC is responsible to build the houses along with the GN, the GN/housing over see this along with securing land for the houses to be built on, which they clearly have not done, the issue here is for NCC to build these houses there needs to be a lot for them to build on and there are none in the communities for them to do this, GN dropped the ball on this, they should have been working with the hamlets to build roads and lots, power lines pit in and so on.
Way too much incompetence at the GN and poor leadership from our minister and Premier.
While the auditor is counting homes not built by NCC, they could also review the cost of the boatload of consultants hired to assist.
I wander what the employees at the GN do if they hire so many consultants?
GN has so many employees but they seem to relay on so many consultants to get anything done.
It’s one bad headline after another for this troubled corporation and no heads roll? Where is the accountability? Same minister, same president, same crap? Real signs of nobody being home! Too busy getting a picture taken?
No comment says Pj,
Don’t show up Lorne for his portfolio,
None confidence come on October elections…
Keeping the Eyes & Ears open
Its all run like a Hamlet, over the years the Government had to go into Hamlets to fix their books, who will do it for the current one? Will they hire consultants or will they be the consultant
From what I know managers are the biggest problem NU has. Nothing but liars at QEC and totally incompetent to say the least.
Stand up to them and they will lie to dismiss a person. Place is a joke to work with people like they have as managers. Including unethical people like Lightstone and his disgusting wife Burns.
At this rate they should complete the 3000 units by the year 3000, not 2030. There is just no end in sight for the troubled housing corporation. When can we expect some improvements?
The GN had no obligation to build 3000 homes, it’s very misleading, it was more like 1600 houses that the GN committed to.
Even for 1600 houses the way the GN is operating it will not happen anytime soon unless the GN gets their act together, so don’t hold your breath on the GN making improvements within government, they prefer to sweep things under the rug and pretend everything is working great.
Quite some time ago, perhaps last year there was a news release that 855 units were under construction. How the he’ll does a corporation run a 2 billion dollar project and not have any idea what progress has been made how much has been spent, who is running this insane asylum. It does not take a lot of effort to count to 254 or even 800 or whatever number you’re trying to claim on any given day. It seems the community residents are unable to find any of the purported units to count. Not hard to miss a new residential unit in any of the communities. Come on fess up, you have failed badly. Stop flogging a dead horse and insisting it is alive and well and working hard.
Its not a counting issue and its a Nunavut issue. Nunavut constantly inflates its “positive” statistics in an attempt to try to downplay its complete dysfunction.
NHC in this case quite clearly used the highest possibly linked thing to this project and said that’s units delivered. I suspect they just took total building permits or lots allocated across NU and said that’s a unit. When the reality is no, you just applied for a lot in a hamlet, there’s no building, no materials, no nothing there yet.
If I had to wager, that’s what I’d guess some genius in NHC thought they could pull off in efforts to inflate statistics.
There’s little honesty in NU because it paints a bad picture. The sad part is though I think people would much rather the bad honest picture than the dishonest pretty looking fake one.
Who else has noticed that the premier consistently answers in Inuktitut only when asked a question for which he does not have a proper response?
Let’s not forget. Federal funding to support housing also went to NTI. Have they build anything? Will they be audited as well.