Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on June 16th, 2026

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Côte-Nord—Kawawachikamach—Nitassinan, QC]

You can also send us a written response, if there's any additional information you'd like to provide.

Mr. Recinos, I have time for one last question. At worst, you can give me the rest of the answer afterward. You talked about crises. We know that northern communities are vulnerable when a crisis hits. It doesn't take long, because they're cut off from the mainland. That's a strange way to say it, but it's what we say at home, too. We're cut off from all contact. The impact on food, health and other areas is awful.

What needs to be done? We see that there's a gap. It's clear that communities are vulnerable. How do we address this vulnerability and make communities resilient?

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Sheehan]

That will have to be in writing too.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Côte-Nord—Kawawachikamach—Nitassinan, QC]

I could wait until the second round for the answer, if there's a second one.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Sheehan]

Do it in writing, please, since there were only 15 seconds.

[Merlyn Recinos]

That's no problem.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Sheehan]

Thank you very much.

Now we go to MP Zimmer for five minutes.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I have some very brief questions for you, Brian.

First, how much does a house cost in Iqaluit?

[Brian Tattuinee]

Oh my goodness. It's a lot more than what I paid for the house I have now. I'd say it's probably getting pretty close to $1 million for a home in Iqaluit. It's high.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

You're not talking about a fancy house. This is pretty basic. I've seen your house. It's a nice house, but it's still fairly basic. To replace that house now, it would be close to $1 million.

[Brian Tattuinee]

I'd say it's probably pretty close to that, yes.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

That's if you can even find one to buy if you have $1 million to buy it with. It's a very challenged market for inventory.

[Brian Tattuinee]

Absolutely. The City of Iqaluit has been working to have expanded areas of development. That is certainly part of the challenge in a community like Iqaluit. Also, more widely across the territory, the availability of developed land and the infrastructure to hold, carry and build those homes are challenges.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

I have a last quick question. I know this is tough to summarize, but maybe in 30 seconds, Brian, you could tell us your story. You have a really amazing story about how your family was almost couch surfing at one point. There was a pivotal change around housing that changed the direction, really, of the lives of your family. Could you explain it as best you can?

[Brian Tattuinee]

Absolutely.

Early in my life, my parents didn't have a home. They lived at either of their parents' houses or with our aunts and uncles. As a very young person, I remember sleeping in overcrowded situations and in laundry rooms. I can definitively say that there was a change in my life when we were given the opportunity to have our own home. That has a tremendous impact on anybody who has been given those opportunities.

I am where I am today because my parents were successful in getting a home in 1987. I remember that. I was four years old. It was like a light switch. It changed my life and the trajectory of my life. Where I am today is the result of the opportunity to have housing, to get out of overcrowded situations. Those types of investments make a big difference in an individual's life, including mine.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

I'll finish with this, because I know your story. Your dad became a tradesman and your mom is now an elected MLA. Congratulations to your mom. She was elected early this year.

It really changed the whole outlook, even as a professional, and opportunities jobs-wise. It really was such a life-changing experience.

I'll pass the rest of my time to Jamie Schmale.

Thank you.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you very much, Mr. Zimmer, for these few minutes of your time.

Merlyn, you talked a few times, when you were addressing Ms. Idlout, about wanting to build the future and unleashing the population to reach its full potential. I've never been to Nunavut. It's on my list of places to go, and I hope to do that very soon.

Please help me understand. You used the word “allow” a lot. You said, “allow us to do this” or “allow this”. To help me understand, what's stopping you and what's stopping the population from reaching the full potential you talk about?

[Merlyn Recinos]

The reality is that there is a lot of red tape around everything that is done. I'll give you an example. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Inuit were building homes by themselves. Later, there was a transition, so you needed to have a Red Seal, the paperwork, the education—all of this—to be able to do it. A lot of the people who had that capacity were sidelined for individuals brought in from the south to build homes, even though they could do it and they could demonstrate the capacity to do it. Because they did not have the certification to do it, they weren't able to. That extended beyond just the trades and beyond things at the community level.

The reality is that today, we are trying to see how we can take that back. Going back to education, it's about doing education at the community level without people having to leave their community. When I say “allow”, I mean that education is run by government. How a certification is done is run by government. All of this is run by government. What I mean by “allow” is let's work together to find a common pathway to success for everyone.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes, ON]

The more the government got involved, the worse things got.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Sheehan]

That's all the time we have. I have to go to the next speaker, but thank you for that.

MP Hanley, you have five minutes.

[Brendan Hanley, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

That's not what I heard.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Brendan Hanley, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

I'm going to ask all three of you questions.

Get ready, Inuaraq.

I'll start with Mr. Tattuinee.

Speaking of government investment, there was almost $64 million from the federal government towards the deep-sea port in Iqaluit, which you referred to. Obviously, these federal investments are incredibly important.

I wanted you to touch briefly on what you are looking for in opportunities for defence investments and how they relate to the infrastructure needs that you see, particularly with your sealift experience.

[Brian Tattuinee]

If the government is thinking of making significant defence investments in the north, it would be good for us, as the logistics supply industry, to understand what's coming so that we can best meet them.

In terms of priorities for what the government should be spending on, I think I'll leave it to the Department of National Defence to decide what they might see—

[Lori Idlout, Liberal, Nunavut, NU]

On a point of order, there's a lot of conversation going on. It's hard to listen to the testimony.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Sheehan]

Go ahead.