Thompson: Five-year housing strategy in the works

MICHAELA RODRIGUE

IQALUIT — Housing Minister Manitok Thompson is drafting a five-year strategy to deal with Nunavut’s social housing crisis.

This year’s Nunavut government budget includes money to build 100 new housing units across the territory and 40 leases.

Thompson said the 100 units won’t go far enough, however, and that she needs a plan to better meet the housing needs of Nunavutmiut.

“We need to have a plan in place, because we have so many people on the waiting lists. I would like to meet the needs of the people in five years. I’m going to see what we can do to address that problem,” Thompson said.

Thompson said she expects to bring forward a proposal that includes new construction each year, but she warned such a plan must be approved by the legislature.

Construction of new social housing units virtually came to a halt in Nunavut when the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation stopped funding it in 1993.

This year’s 100 units are expected to cost about $16 million.

So far, Thompson said that even though Ottawa won’t provide more money for new social housing construction, her government still needs to deal with the problem.

“It’s a challenge. The thing is, we have a lot of people on the waiting lists and we have a lot of people who are in need of social housing. We can’t just ignore the fact that there are people out there that need social housing. ”

But with more than 600 names on waiting lists across the territory, tackling Nunavut’s housing shortage will be expensive.

Last August, one of Thompson’s officials told Claudette Bradshaw, the federal minister responsible for homelessness, that Nunavut needs to add 300 new units to its roster each year to stop the numbers of homeless from increasing.

Thompson’s staff will begin consultations with regular MLAs and the local housing authorities to devise the five-year strategy.

A needs assessment will be done to determine how many housing units are needed, the condition of the current stock of 3,500 units and the extent of overcrowding. Thompson told the legislative assembly this week she hopes to table the strategy this fall.

As well Thompson said she’d like to join forces with Inuit groups such as Pauktuutit, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and Inuit Tapirisat Inc. to lobby the federal government for more money.