Nunavik Housing Bureau budgets $105M for home renovations this year

The Nunavik Housing Bureau has budgeted more than $105 million for renovations this year — a move that will see work happening across the region.

The plan is several years in the making and follows the federal government’s seven-year $3.2 billion commitment from two years ago to improve housing across Quebec, said Lupin Daignault, the bureau’s director of real estate and renovations, in an interview at the Kuujjuaq office.

The Nunavik Housing Bureau’s Kuujjuaq office has planned $105 million in renovations for the 2024 construction season. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)

He said five villages are on this list this summer to be visited by contractors who will be taking care of major renovations.

Twenty units are to be renovated in Salluit, 20 in Kuujjuaq, 16 in Puvirnituq, 13 in Kuujjuaraapik and two in Kangiqsualujjuaq.

Daignault said the housing bureau is aiming for work in seven villages next year, including three that have already had their contracts awarded.

Major renovations are costly, Daignault said.

“We do the sidings, the roof, the doors, the windows, balconies, stairs, the exterior, we do everything anew,” he said.

The aim is to finish this year’s work by October at the latest.

There are also smaller projects on the go, including in 10 units each in Tasiujaq and Ivujivik, where two contractors will take care of renovating house facings.

Plans also call for replacing windows in multiple communities.

“Ten to 15 years ago, windows were badly installed,” Daignault said. “We decided that with some of the money, we would replace windows for these units.”

This includes 15 units in Quaqtaq, 16 in Kangiqsujuaq, 10 in Kangirsuk and 18 in Aupaluk.

As well, there is $11 million set aside for either contractors or Nunavik Housing Bureau technicians to do minor work in houses that are, for the most part, temporarily vacant.

To decide the order in which houses will be repaired, the housing bureau has a team of six inspectors who travel around Nunavik. All houses are visited every five years, inspected and receive a building health assessment.

Based on those results, the houses will receive a grade according to the Facility Condition Index, which is a Canada-wide metric. Houses are graded on a best-to-worst basis from A to E, with those getting Ds and Es to undergo work soonest.

The federal government made $3.2 billion available from 2022 to 2028 to improve housing across all of Quebec.

This has made the Nunavik Housing Bureau’s work easier, said Daignault.

One construction season can take three years to plan, he said, due to complexities caused by sealift schedules, availability of contractors and availability of materials.

In an agreement with Makivvik — the Inuit corporation responsible for generating jobs and improving housing conditions — another $20 million is available for the Nunavik Housing Bureau to fix damaged houses that had been considered total losses.

Akulivik, Inukjuak, Kangiqsujuaq, Kangirsuk and Puvirnituq will see their damaged houses repaired in 2024 and 2025. The housing bureau also has $6 million budgeted to repair damaged houses that require simpler fixes.

This year and next year are considered important times for renovations, Daignauilt said. After the lull in construction around the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, “the needs are great.”

There will also be new idea incorporated into this new round of construction.

For instance, roofs are replaced now with sheet metal. Previously, asphalt clapboard was used but that was more expensive because, for environmental reasons, it had to be shipped back down south for disposal after it was discarded.