Nunavik victorious in the battle of the cupboards

KUUJJUAQ — Nunavik has won the battle of the cupboard doors.

Last Thursday, Quebec’s housing bureau, la Société d’Habitation du Québec, admitted that 42 small, new social housing units delivered to Nunavik in August should have been outfitted with cupboard doors.

The SHQ will also pick up the tab for the new cupboard doors and the cost of their installation.

Tenants of the new houses were upset when they realized that no cupboard doors were going to be supplied with their houses, and that items such as toxic cleaning materials and dangerous kitchen utensils would be easily accessible to small children.

“We received complaints, and we’ve been receptive to them,” said the SHQ’s Claude Fournier.

According to the SHQ, it will cost $20,000 to retrofit the cupboards with doors, much more than it would have cost if the decision had been made when the prefabricated houses were outfitted in southern Quebec.

The Makivik Corporation was also prepared to turn the cupboards into a political issue, and Makivik Corporation President Pita Aatami had sent a polite but firm letter to Fournier.

“It was well understood by all that these houses were constructructed with very limited funds. Despite this, I would like to express my dissatisfaction that the cabinets came without the other essential components, i.e. cupboard doors,” Aatami wrote.

“The new tenants have been requesting that these essential components be installed. Without going any further, I believe that this request is very reasonable since it would improve the safety and functionality of the cupboards.”