Nunavut MLAs demand housing cost inquiry

Nunavut's MLAs want a public inquiry into how the territory's housing corporation overspent by $110 million, creating what the premier has called a financial fiasco.

The Nunavut Housing Corp. announced this year it has incurred cost overruns from two federal social housing programs under its control.

The territorial housing authorityannounced this year it overspent by $60 million at the Nunavut Housing Trust, a federal initiative announced in 2006 to build 725 public housing units.Last month, the corporation said it incurred $50 million in cost overruns onanother federal affordable housing initiative that was announced in 2009.

Premier Eva Aariak called the situation a "fiasco" this week, while Finance Minister Keith Peterson warned it could plunge the territory into a deficit.

Several MLAs have grilled the government on whether they will call a public inquiry to determine, in part, whether any criminal activity led to the overspending.

"Something went wrong somewhere and we'd just like to get to the bottom of it," Sanikiluaq MLA Allan Rumbolt said outside the legislature on Thursday.

No criminal activity: minister

Inside the legislature on Wednesday, Nanulik MLA Johnny Ningeonan put the question directly to Housing Minister Tagak Curley: "Will the minister consider holding a public inquiry into this whole mess?"

Curley said his cabinet has not seen any evidence of criminal activity at the territorial government agency.

"The cabinet on this side is not convinced that there had been excessive misappropriation or any mismanagement of funds, other than not budgeting properly," Curley said in the legislature.

Poor budgeting was one conclusion reached by an independent audit of the Nunavut Housing Trust's $60-million overrun.

The audit by Deloitte and Touche, released earlier this month, found housing corporation officials rushed to create the trust's budget and had no way to track the program's costs over multi-year projects.

But MLAs including Rumbolt and South Baffin MLA Fred Schell said the audit was not thorough enough, after Curley acknowledged that the auditors did not travel to Nunavut to conduct their investigation.

"Whenever our books were being looked at, the auditors always came to the community, in person, to review the files and interview staff," said Rumbolt, who managed the local housing corporation inSanikiluaq prior to entering politics.

Curley said he does not believe cabinet will support a public inquiry in this case.