Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (2001) Final Report of the Research and Consultation Project Concerning Inuit Housing Across Canada, ITC, Ottawa
Keywords: Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation (CMHC), Canadian federal government, crowding, homeownership, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (Inuit Tapirisat of Canada), social housing
This report funded by Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation (CMHC), Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), Northwest Territories Housing Corp, Nunavut Housing Corp, and the Newfoundland/Labrador Housing Corp, consists of a literature review of northern and Inuit housing, analysis of a questionnaire to organizations concerned with northern housing, and interviews with individual experts on the housing situation (p. 4). The ITC defined its role in Inuit housing as the main lobbyist for the creation of a National Inuit Housing Program (p. 25).
The Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (ITC) attempted to understand the northern housing situation in the 1990’s to 2000. Northern/Inuit housing was described in the literature as in a state of crisis, contributing to increasing family violence, self-destructive acts, high school dropout rates, substance abuse, and the decrease of physical health standards (p. 2). The federal government dropped funding for new social housing construction in 1993. The ITC wants to return the levels of funding to pre-1993 levels by appealing to the political sector (p. 16).
The report enumerates solutions presented at the National Inuit Housing Consultation Meeting in 2000. Recommendations included better partnerships between Inuit-Government-Private Sector, innovative financing, and housing designs reflective of Inuit lifestyles (p. 18-19). To help with the development of an Arctic housing market, the creation of better homeownership programs was proposed along with other solutions. In theory, it is claimed that these programs would free up social housing units for priority groups of Inuit elders, young people, and young families (p. 21).