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Picco takes homelessness problem to Ottawa

Throne speech on northern issues provides leverage for cash

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Ed Picco, Nunavut’s minister responsible for homelessness, met Iqaluit city council last month to discuss efforts to bring various social services, like the shelter, soup kitchen and food bank, under one roof, possibly at the Upatsuraakkut Wellness Centre. (PHOTO BY GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS)

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Picco stepped into a series of high-profile meetings between federal, provincial, and territorial leaders from Nov. 2 to Nov. 4, aiming to convince his counterparts in housing and education that Nunavut needs more support.

Although the Government of Nunavut made Picco responsible for helping Nunavut’s homeless, he has no budget from the GN to tackle the issue.

But Picco was optimistic that he could get Ottawa to hand over more money, or at least free building leases, to deal with what is one of the territory’s most pressing challenges, however invisible.

“When you don’t have a home in Nunavut, you can’t go live in the streets,” Picco said.

“You’d freeze to death.”

Picco used this year’s throne speech to lobby Joe Fontana, federal minister for labour and housing, to open up the federal purse for projects in Nunavut.

The speech shows Ottawa is increasingly interested in the North, Picco said, pointing to references that mention making rural and northern areas a priority.

In the speech, the federal government pledged to create the “first-ever comprehensive strategy for the North,” which would include “human and economic development.”

For Picco, that means Ottawa will help more Nunavummiut find a place to live.

“There are people falling through the cracks around Nunavut,” he said.

Picco said Fontana was receptive to his pitch for more money, and believed it would help Nunavut’s case when the federal government develops the third phase of its national strategy to fight homelessness.

But Picco doesn’t just want dollars for homelessness programs. He hopes that the federal government will also consider donating some under-used buildings, to reduce homelessness in the territory.

Currently, there are no unused federal buildings in Nunavut, but Picco confirmed that Ottawa would first ask the territorial government if it wanted to use any, when building came up for grabs.

Picco said Nunavut often struggles to get attention and funding for homeless people in the territory, because they are less visible than homeless people down South.

Most federal funding for homelessness goes to helping people in Toronto, Vancouver and other major cities, where panhandlers are seen living in the streets.

But, in the past, the federal government has also recognized Nunavut’s unique brand of homelessness, which is hidden behind the doors of overcrowded houses.

“That’s where you see 13 to 15 people in a three-bedroom house, sleeping in shifts,” Picco said.

Picco pointed out that the GN has already convinced the federal government to lend a larger hand to the territory’s poor.

He said after Claudette Bradshaw, then the federal minister for homelessness, visited Iqaluit several years ago, the GN was able to start Akausisarvik, a home for Nunavummiut with mental problems, relocate the women’s shelter in Apex, and start a low-income housing pilot project in Taloyoak.

Picco, who is also minister of education, said he made headway with other federal ministers last week. He said Andy Scott, minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, committed to trying to include the creation of a trade school in Nunavut, when cabinet puts together its Northern strategy.

Picco also met with Ken Dryden, federal minister for human resources, to discuss early childhood education and the national child benefit program. He said Dryden agreed not to apply a “cookie-cutter approach” when developing formulas for funding programs across Canada.

Picco said that means Dryden will avoid per-capita formulas that usually leave Nunavut with much less funding than other provinces and territories.

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