Salluit tenants complain about door-less cupboards

By JANE GEORGE

IQALUIT — The tenants of 16 new prefabicated social housing units in Salluit have moved into their new homes, but they’re still unhappy — because there are no doors on their cupboards.

The new two-bedroom houses were financed by a $10 million housing bonus Nunavik received last spring from the federal and provincial governments.

Each of the 24- by 28-foot houses are self-contained units, with a combined living-dining room, master bedroom and smaller bedroom. They arrived off the sealift completely finished — except for cupboards in the kitchen and bathroom.

“We, the tenants of the new small two-bedroom houses are requesting to have cupboard doors in our kitchens and bathrooms,” reads a petition signed by new tenants in Salluit. “It is awkward and unsafe especially for our small children who could consume hazardous chemicals such as cleaning solvents.”

The houses are managed by Quebec’s housing bureau, the Société d’habitation du Québec. Those who signed the petition, which is directed to the SHQ, said that they were aware that the local Co-op store could order cupboard doors.

“But as renters we cannot modify houses that we do not own privately,” they wrote.

Salluit’s housing officer, Maggie Gordon, said she noticed immediately that the new houses lacked cupboard doors.

“I asked to see if they were on order,”Gordon said. “But they told me that they didn’t have any more money for doors.”

Nunavik’s member of Parliament, Guy St-Julien, said during a recent tour of Ungava Bay communities this week that he is outraged by the situation.

After a visit to one of the new cupboard-less houses in Tasiujaq, St-Julien immediately shot off a letter to the federal minister responsible for housing, Alphonso Gagliano.

“I’ve just visited one of the new houses paid for by the federal and provincial governments,”wrote St-Julien. “It doesn’t have any doors for the cupboards that are in the kitchen and the bathroom. In my opinion, it’s criminal to act in this way because children will easily be able to get into these cupboards.”

St-Julien also took a swipe at the sovereignist Parti Québécois government of Quebec.

“It”s another blow from the government of Quebec against the Inuit people,” said St-Julien.

But Réjean Binet, the SHQ official who is responsible for Nunavik’s housing, said the housing bureau’s decision not to hang cupboard doors was a simple decision. It was based on money and a desire to keep within budget, he said.

“Instead, we decided to put money into supplying household appliances such as stoves, refrigerators, washers and dryers,” Binet said.

In Nunavut, social housing tenants have to supply their own washers and dryers.

The SHQ has no objection if tenants of the new houses want to put up curtains to cover the open cupboards or invest in doors.

“But it’s not necessarily those doors that protect children,” Binet said.

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