New Yellowknife transitional housing may not open before December

The NWT’s housing minister says a transitional housing project on the edge of Yellowknife is not now expected to open until well into the winter.

The project, which will accommodate up to 25 people, is located on land next to the Folk on the Rocks festival site, opposite Yellowknife’s airport runway.

It was announced in May and greeted with enthusiasm by advocates for the city’s homeless population.

However, delays have been steadily creeping in. Last month, the territorial government hoped to have people in the new housing units by mid-November. Now, that’s looking more like December.

“The process is getting long and we are going to be heading into winter soon, so that’s very concerning. We’re hoping to have the facility open by December,” housing minister Lucy Kuptana told the legislature on Friday.

She was responding to questions from Great Slave MLA Kate Reid, who noted “it’s getting cold outside” and asked about the factors behind the delay.

Kuptana said the GNWT is “still waiting for approvals from Nav Canada and Transport Canada, due to the facility being close to the airport.”

In a Monday statement after this article was first published, a Nav Canada spokesperson confirmed the organization – a non-profit that operates Canada’s civil air navigation system – is “actively reviewing” the proposal for a transitional housing facility near the airport.

“This review process is an important part of maintaining aviation safety and ensuring new developments are compatible with nearby air navigation infrastructure,” Nav Canada stated.

“Nav Canada is fully committed to supporting timely community development and has modernized how we review land-use proposals to make the process faster and more efficient. These improvements are designed to ensure proponents receive clear, consistent feedback as quickly as possible.

“We are committed to reviewing the submission as efficiently as possible.”

Transport Canada said it was working on a response.

More: What will Yellowknife’s new transitional housing facility be like?

“We have a builder awarded for the transitional housing facility,” said Kuptana, adding that a request for proposals had concluded to find an operator. “So we’re ready to go. We’re just waiting on approvals.”

Frame Lake MLA Julian Morse asked Kuptana how Yellowknifers without homes had been engaged in the process of choosing to establish a new facility like this.

The minister said there had been weekly meetings involving the city’s homeless population, though Morse noted “the residents themselves felt that the meetings were not as frequent as the minister has said.”

Asked by Morse if potential occupants of the facility had been given any say in its design, Kuptana suggested they had not.

“Considering the urgent need for transitional housing in Yellowknife, we needed to move quickly and move forward with the design,” she said.

The GNWT has previously said the new facility will “bridge the gap between homelessness and longer-term housing.”

Documents indicate the facility will be made up of modular units with single rooms and shared bathrooms, laundry facilities and a common area for residents, as well as office space for staff.

Paul Bros Nextreme – a custom manufacturing, steel construction and welding company based in Yellowknife – was awarded a $5-million construction contract that includes the facility design, permitting, transportation, installation, servicing and ongoing leasing over three years.