[Witness spoke in Inuktitut, interpreted as follows:]
My name is Meeka Atagootak from Pond Inlet.
In 2010, a water truck ran into our house. The house has been damaged ever since and has started to flood.
We tried to have it repaired last year, but we started having health problems with skin conditions. We had to go constantly to the health centre. The house was deteriorating. The metal turned black. We try to keep it clean, but we haven't been successful.
We got help from the housing corporation, but they are very slow in repairing anything, and nothing has been done to the building ever since.
The staff of the Hamlet of Pond Inlet investigated the building, and we had to move out of our house. We moved to government housing for eight months. It has been a difficult year. Things moved slowly, so we stayed there at the government housing for a year.
Right now, they aren't working on the pipes and the bottom part of the building, the wood foundation, is very soft where the toilet area is in the bathroom. The housing corporation is looking into this at this time, but it would be very encouraging if you can push and get decisions when these types of things happen for us who are living in the north.
We have many children and grandchildren in my home. It's an emergency. In the past month, it has been an emergency because I haven't got any response about my urgent requests. The people who are living in the north should really be given a priority in consideration of this type of thing. It's not acceptable to be living in that condition.
There is mould in pretty much every house up there. Because of that, the housing corporation should be encouraged to help communities. I am now widowed and I have nobody to help me. It's been a struggle when nobody is really taking care of us.
Since the collision happened, it's been a slow process. Today the bottom of the building is flooded again. I don't know how long we're going to wait to have that repaired.
I encourage you to help the people who own their own homes in the north. With owning our own home, sometimes the paint wears off around the house. We cannot do our own painting. The emergency cases especially should be handled promptly. We don't have any insurance to cover the repair.
We have cardboard that's being used. I put the cardboard around where the mouldy parts of the building are. That's how we are in our home. There are rusting metal pipes, which are hard to keep clean. We just cover it up with cardboard.
Those of us who own our homes are neglected by the housing corporation, so we get sick, and those are the emergency cases. We try hard to keep our homes clean, but sometimes they have to be replaced. Once you replace them, they easily deteriorate again.
Thank you.