Cape Dorset (Jun 19/06) - The man who studied housing in Cape Dorset says $200 million is nowhere near enough to solve Nunavut's overcrowding.

All Frank Tester could say when he heard the announcement was a sarcastic "Whoopee."

Researchers Frank Tester of the University of British Columbia and Matta Parr of Cape Dorset pore over the results of their study on the housing situation in the Baffin Island hamlet. Overcrowding in Cape Dorset, they found, is seven times the national average. - Chris Windeyer/NNSL photo

"It's nothing. The Kelowna Accord promised $400 million."

That agreement would have spent billions improving native living conditions across the country, but it was a proposal of the previous Liberal government the Conservatives let die when they took power.

Tester, a University of British Columbia sociologist, was in Iqaluit to release a study on housing conditions in Cape Dorset, which he angrily compares to those of a developing country.

The two-month study, which involved interviewing 91 residents of the Baffin Island hamlet, revealed an overcrowding rate of more than seven times the national average.

Overcrowding has far-reaching impacts, said Matta Parr, a Cape Dorset native and one of six local youth who conducted the research. Those impacts include poor sanitary conditions, shortages of water and surpluses of sewage.

Then there is the cabin fever that inevitably rises when too many people share too little space. Often the result is anger, depression and violence.

"They start arguing inside the house or they can't finish work done at home," Parr said.

And with 50 per cent of Cape Dorset's population on social assistance, people often cannibalize household goods to make ends meet, selling furniture and appliances "so they can buy food or clothes," Parr said.

Parr herself experiences the situation first hand. She lives with eight other people in a four-bedroom house and shares a room with her two children.

"Sometimes we fight in my place... when there's too many people or it's noisy," she said.

In the legislative assembly last week, minister Akesuk said enough supplies for 100 housing units will be on this year's sealift. Department staff will be checking with communities to see who needs what, he said. Otherwise, there has been little indication of where the $200 million for housing contained in this spring's federal budget will go.

The government of Nunavut is chipping in an additional $11 million for housing in the next year, and Cape Dorset is one of several communities that will see construction of a new five-plex.

Akesuk noted Nunavut needs $1.7 billion to bring its housing situation up to national standards.

"I'm going to push for more money in the coming years from the federal government," he told MLAs.

But Tester thinks Nunavut should take the federal government to court for violating section 36 of the Constitution which commits governments to "promoting equal opportunities for the well-being of Canadians."

It's difficult for people in poor housing situations to achieve in school or the workforce, Tester said.

"What kind of equal opportunity is that?"