Nunavik communities wrangle over new housing

AUPALUK — Imagine sitting around a table and divvying up millions of dollars worth of new social housing.

It might be just a little bit stressful, given the housing crunch in Nunavik.

But that’s exactly what the Kativik Regional Government councillors did last week when they met in Aupaluk.

And, not surprisingly, the process of deciding which communities should get the badly needed social housing was rough.

“We’re all in need of housing, and not all of us will be satisfied, even though we’re going to have to decide,” KRG chairman Johnny Adams told the meeting.

At stake were the 30 new two-bedroom units planned for Nunavik in 2001.

Staffers from the Kativik Municipal Housing Board and Makivik Corporation were on hand to advise the KRG on where to put the social housing.

They suggested putting four units in Kangirsuk, six in Akulivik and 20 in Kuujjuaq, based on those communities’ high rates of overcrowding per bedroom.

Kuujjuaq has the highest number of persons per bedroom — around 1.55. Akulivik has 1.47 persons per bedroom, and Kangirsuk 1.35.

Choosing only these three communities for new construction in 2001 is intended to make local training programs in home-building more efficient.

But members of the KRG regional council, which is comprised of community mayors and municipal councillors, weren’t impressed with these suggestions and immediately the grumbling started.

“Kuujjuaq isn’t the only community which is growing—” “Again this year they are going to get the most units—” “It’s not fair,” various councillors griped.

Even Kuujjuaq Mayor Michael Gordon was uncomfortable with the idea that his community, already Nunavik’s largest and most prosperous, would walk off with the lion’s share of the goods.

“I really didn’t know where to hide when I saw the numbers. We never said we wanted 20 houses. I’m appalled,” Gordon said.

Willie Kumarluk, the regional councillor for Umiujaq, said it looked as if his community has plenty of housing, due to its low ratio of 1.14 persons per bedroom, but he insisted these numbers were deceiving.

Umiujaq has many four-bedroom units, Kumarluk explained, so many extended families are thrown together under one roof.

“Ten families need units,” Kumarluk said.

Many KRG councillors also questioned the way housing-needs were calculated, although they couldn’t come up with another way of equitably showing the needs.

In the end, they decided to cut four units from Kuujjuaq’s allotment and transfer them to Umiujuaq.

In 2002, Nunavik will see another 54 two-bedroom houses; in 2003, 60 more; and 72 in 2004.

Added to the 60 started in 2000, this means Nunavik will get 266 new social housing units over five years — that is, around 55 per year.

This number is, however, five fewer per year than was originally planned.

The cut is due to the fact that last summer Makivik Corporation — the organization responsible for building social housing units in Nunavik — ended up losing $2 million. As a result, it will try to recoup $500,000 per year over the next four years.

Last April, Nunavimmiut learned that the federal and provincial governments would each chip in $5 million a year for five years to build more than 300 social housing units in Nunavik.

Until last year, Quebec’s housing bureau, la Société d’Habitation du Québec, always handled the construction of social housing in Nunavik.

But Makivik fought to become the new housing-construction program’s lead agent, in order to stretch money even further, by building more houses and involving local manpower.

A southern contractor said he was willing to do all this and more. He would build attractive, wood-paneled homes, featuring such touches as high cathedral ceilings in the living room and nine-foot high ceilings in the bedrooms.

But, in the end, the contractor’s promises felt flat. There were missed deadlines and design problems, and the planned “technology transfer” to Inuit never happened.

These troubles meant the 60 new houses, which should have been finished in September, 2000, will only be ready at the end of March — and at a high cost to Makivik.

In 1999 Ottawa had paid for some 30 new social housing units for Nunavik. Quebec’s housing bureau, the SHQ, shipped these up, completely prefabricated, from Quebec City.

The tiny, trailer-like dwellings lacked finishing touches such as cupboards, they were small, and no one liked them.

The new social housing units planned for 2001 are larger than these, but still modest, with 951 square feet of space. The units will be built in duplexes, and similar to some older units found in Nunavut. A shared mechanical room will be located in the centre of units.

The cost per each two-bedroom unit is estimated to come in at around $174,000.