Wonderful. Thank you so much for the invitation.
Just to give the members a sense of who I am, I am Inuk. I live in Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut. I have been involved in a wide range of issues affecting my communities and my people for over 30 years, including housing and homelessness as well as ancillary issues with respect to education, training, social justice and more.
I think most of the members are very familiar with the housing crisis we face in Nunavut. I can tell you that as a former politician—I was the mayor of Iqaluit from 2010 to 2012 and then from 2015 to 2019—housing in my community and in the territory was one of our priorities. I actually worked very closely with one of our shelters. Through not just patience but almost stubbornness, I assisted in being able to help them open up a new shelter: 16,000 square feet, 30 shelter beds, 30 transition housing beds, new offices, new programming space and 11 apartments, five of which, I believe, have been made into affordable housing.
I'm no longer in politics. I'm working with the women's shelter here in Iqaluit to help them with their COVID space response, with their financials, as well as with submitting applications recently into Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, our regional Inuit association. I'm happy to say that they got some funding and are just waiting on the response from CMHC for their rapid housing—