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Chesterfield Inlet waits for news of group home

GN stalls on decision to replace aging St. Theresa’s Hospital

JANE GEORGE

The Government of Nunavut has yet to make a commitment about who will build a new home for the handicapped in Chesterfield Inlet — the GN or another party.

"Like waiting at the aglu [seal hole in the ice], sometimes it takes a while," health minister Ed Picco said in the legislative assembly last week.

Last year, Chesterfield Development Corporation put in a bid to build, lease and operate a facility for the handicapped in Chesterfield Inlet, but the group hasn’t reached an agreement with the GN on the cost of the build-to-lease portion of the deal.

As a result, Picco said he’s still not sure whether it would be better to have a long-term lease with the development corporation for a new facility or have the government build it.

"Those two equations have to be settled," Picco said.

The corporation’s original proposal was for a 20-bed facility that would have twice as many beds as the GN asked for.

The proposed price tag for providing services to the residents also came to double the amount per person that’s currently paid by the GN.

"The building was just too big, and we didn’t have the financial resources. Logistically, financially or indeed administratively we weren’t able to bring the project forward," Picco told MLAs.

The GN’s budget has set aside 1.6 million for the operation of the facility.

But Picco said he doesn’t want the government to pay an "exorbitant" premium to lease instead of build a new facility.

Although the Chesterfield Development Corporation has provided a revised proposal, Picco and finance minister Kelvin Ng said more questions about costs still need to be answered — that is why the fate of the facility remains up in the air.

This new residence would replace the aging St. Theresa’s Hospital where the Catholic Diocese of Churchill has looked after the eight handicapped residents since the 1970s. Two years ago, Bishop Reynald Rouleau told the Nunavut Government that the Catholic Church wanted to transfer the service contract for their care to the territory.

This transfer finally became official on March 31.

But the GN is now faced with making a decision on whether to proceed with the lease-to-build deal by early May in order to meet sealift deadlines.

If the GN decides the development corporation’s proposal is still too high, Picco said the $40,000 worth of renovations recently put into the St. Theresa’s Home would permit its continued use as a home for the handicapped.

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