November 29, 2011. Nunatsiaq News. By Sarah Rogers.

Nunavut's poverty summit opened Nov. 28 in Iqaluit, with territorial leaders pledging to improve the quality of life by embracing traditional Inuit values. The summit's approximately 50 participants - including elected officials, government employees and social services workers - plan to spend the next three days drafting a poverty reduction action plan for Nunavut. "Now we can agree on a plan with steps that will lead us down a path to a better life," Premier Eva Aariak said at the summit's opening Monday evening. "Our ancestors are very innovative and that is why we're here today. This plan will be built on our current strengths and assets. How can we make better use of the abundant resources we already have?" Discussions during the closed three-day meetings will draw on action reports compiled from roundtable discussions held in Rankin Inlet, Cambridge Bay, Pond Inlet and Iqaluit since the project was launched in October 2010. Those discussions highlighted some major themes for poverty reduction, such as the need for better income support and social housing across the territory...

Read more at: http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674nunavut_kicks_off_poverty_summit/

November 29, 2011. Slave River Journal. By Meagan Wohlberg.

Without new funding from the federal government soon, the already-insufficient public housing stock in the Northwest Territories could diminish to an unmanageable level, according to a new report on the state of government-assisted housing released last Thursday afternoon in Yellowknife.
The report, "Government-Assisted Housing in the Northwest Territories and the Role of the Federal Government," was presented by Carleton University PhD candidate Nick Falvo and his research supervisor Dr. Frances Abele to the public at Yellowknife City Hall as part of a panel discussion in cooperation with the Centre for Northern Families.

The report states that high operating and construction costs coupled with rising demand from an increasingly poor population indicate the housing system, as it stands, is unsustainable without permanent financial assistance from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

"Yes, the federal government has announced funding in the past several years, but they've been one-off announcements," Falvo, the report's author, told The Journal in an interview from Yellowknife. "They've been for a limited number of units, they've been for a limited time, and then the government has stepped away."

Annual funding amounts from CMHC for housing in the NWT have begun to decline and will fully expire in 2038. Falvo's report indicates that rent paid by tenants (below 30 per cent of household income) combined with the current GNWT subsidy can sustain only half of the territory's public housing stock, which is already seeing a waiting list of 400 households.

"Look, if you've got the sunsetting of these operating agreements that will be completely expired by 2038, one-off announcements aren't going to cut it," said Falvo. "So we make the point that it's important for the federal government to announce a permanent re-entry into social housing and establish a plan for a permanent response to those expiring operating agreements." Falvo said requesting more money from the territorial government is not really an option. At $1,672 per capita, the GNWT spends 25 times as much on housing for its population than the average Canadian province, which spends $61 per capita, the report found...

Read more at: http://srj.ca/nwt-public-housing-at-tipping-point-p6752-88.htm (free login required)