Alfred Moses, minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, signed a memorandum of agreement September 4 with Duane Smith, chair of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation (IRC) for six new housing units built by the Inuvialuit Development Corporation (IDC).
Samantha McKay/NNSL photo
The new six-plex is located at the corner of Dolphin Street and Bonnetplume Road. Each two-bedroom unit is ready to have Northwest Territories Housing Corporation tenants move in.
IDC chairperson Patrick Gruben said the new units are replacing six units that were destroyed in a fire two years ago.
Gruben said funding for the new units came from the federal government in an effort to address the Canada-wide shortage of Inuit housing.
"There's a well-known shortage of housing for Inuit across Canada," said Gruben. "IDC is an Inuit-owned business, and we're proud to be doing this for our own people."
New duplex and four-plex housing will be developed in all Inuvialuit Settlement Region communities in the coming years – with Inuvik, Tuktoyaktuk and Aklavik first on the list.
New units will also be built in Ulukhaktok, Paulatuk and Sachs Harbour.
Potential tenants will go through the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation process, and likely be chosen from the housing waitlist.
Samantha McKay/NNSL photo
Moses said he is happy to see a successful trilateral relationship between IRC, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation and the federal government.
"IRC is leading the way in terms of working with government to address our core housing needs in the communities," said Moses. "In the Beaufort Delta, there is a high need for safe, affordable housing, and the way IDC did these units in terms of energy efficiency and making them more in line with the modern housing needs that we currently have, they're leading the way."
Moses said he hopes this new development will encourage other Indigenous governments to work with the Canadian government to address housing needs.