Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (July 05/99) - A piece of the baggage the Nunavut government inherited from the NWT government was discarded last week with few tears shed.

The minimum downpayment assistance pilot program, which provided easterners with a $15,000 grant toward the purchase of a home, ended on June 30.

"It was quite easy to do, because the program was basically directed toward anybody," said Minister of Community Government, Housing and Transportation Jack Anawak. "It really did not address the concerns of people who needed the assistance most."

Anawak noted he did not "fully agree" with the program at the time it was introduced, when he was interim commissioner.

Though grants given during the last week of the program were yet to be added, statistics from the housing department show the program was far less popular in the east than it was in the west.

Since December, when it was introduced by the NWT government, a total of $495,000 has been granted to 33 home buyers in the east, compared to more than $5 million given to those in the west.

"It was basically an economic stimulation program designed for Yellowknife," said Jim Fennell, director of housing operations for the department.

Fennell said one of the purposes of the program was to make the western capital more economically attractive to southerners coming north to work at the BHP's Ekati diamond mine. The income tax the NWT government would make in the first year from each worker who relocated from the south to the western Arctic would more than offset the $10,000 grant given to home buyers in the west.

Fennell said a heathy income was a requirement of the program. For example, with a $15,000 grant, a purchaser would need an income to qualify for a mortgage of at least $150,000, depending on the price of the home and the amount of the downpayment in addition to the grant.

Two other housing assistance programs -- the extended downpayment assistance program and the independent housing program -- inherited from the NWT to help those with low incomes get into the housing market remain in place.