Stephanie McDonald
Northern News Services
Monday, August 6, 2007

IQALUIT - Families across the territory are a step closer to moving into their desperately needed and long anticipated new homes.

Construction is underway across Nunavut on primarily five-plex family units, part of an antidote to the territory's pervasive overcrowding situation.

The $200 million provided by the federal government in the Nunavut Housing Trust Initiative in 2006 is going towards 725 units in the territory.

Building materials arrived on last year's sealift, and twice as many units will be brought in on this year's sealift.

"We're going to construct to the shell stage until Christmas time then shut them down," Peter Scott, president of the Nunavut Housing Corporation said.

Work on the units will begin again in April or May and will be finished as the next set of material comes in.

The five-plexes are built for small families, the group in greatest need of housing, but also the group that had received the littlest attention.

Larger families had been getting houses first in the past.

Sanikiluaq is awaiting the arrival of building materials on this year's sealift and crews are ready to begin construction as soon as things arrive.

The community already built three five-plexes between 2005 and 2007. Two additional five-plexes will be constructed this year, with occupants being able to move in next year.

"It will give some hope to those who have been on the waiting list for some time," Erin Sabo, manager of the Qammaq Housing Association in Sanikiluaq said. "There are a lot of young families, so they can look forward to being out on their own."

The five-plexes have been allocated for smaller families in the community. The three recently built housing units have shortened the waiting list for housing in the community, Sabo said.

The construction means not only new houses, but jobs for community residents.

A component of the Housing Trust Initiative is to have local apprentices working with ticketed journeymen on each site. There are currently at least 37 apprentices working on sites across the Baffin Region, said Michael Haddon, an advisor and consultant with the Nunavut Housing Corporation.

The majority of the journeymen have come from the south, and are able to have two apprentices, three if one of them is a pre-trades apprentice.

"Over a period of time it is our fervent desire that we will get to a point where we won't be bringing them in from the south," said John Corkett, district director with the Nunavut Housing Corporation in Cape Dorset.

The idea is that after three or four years, the apprentices will have enough hours to get their journeyman certification.

The Housing Corporation has a requirement that 60 per cent of its workforce be Inuit.

This means at least $200,000 to $300,000 in wages is going into Inuit pockets each month in each community, Scott said.

In some communities, that number is even higher. It is an economic boost to any community, rather than the money being shipped out when southern contractors leave.

"The numbers indicate it's just scratching the surface in terms of need," Haddon said of the 725 units. "It will meet the need of a few people. It's just a dent."

Nunavut needs 3,000 units immediately to reduce overcrowding to the national level, according to the Housing Corporation.

Ideally, there would be 350 to 500 new units built each year, Scott said.

The Modernization and Improvement Program will go before the legislative assembly this fall, seeking approval for $12 million in upgrades on homes across the territory, Scott said.