Larga Baffin’s Ottawa expansion on hold amid GN contract uncertainty
Funding talks with federal government delay contract for 350-bed medical boarding facility in Ottawa
Plans for a new 350-bed medical boarding home in Ottawa are on hold as Larga Baffin Ltd. awaits a long-term contract from the Government of Nunavut. (Image courtesy of DTAH Architects)
A proposed new medical boarding facility for Inuit patients in Ottawa is on hold as Larga Baffin Ltd. awaits a long-term service contract from the Government of Nunavut, the organization said in a statement last week.
Larga Baffin, which provides accommodation for Nunavummiut travelling to Ottawa for medical care, had planned to build a six-storey, 220-room boarding home at Hunt Club Road and Sieveright Avenue.
The company purchased the site in 2020.
The proposed facility would house up to 350 guests, which is nearly double the capacity of its current location on Richmond Road that accommodates 195 and is Larga Baffin’s third site since it opened in 2000.
But the project, years in the making, has stalled despite clearing significant regulatory hurdles, including a neighbourhood appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal that was dismissed in 2023.
“Larga Baffin Ltd. is ready to invest the capital and access long-term debt financing to support the acquisition of a new facility that meets the GN specifications,” said Anne Curley, chairperson of Larga Baffin Ltd., in a written statement to Nunatsiaq News.
“This will only be possible with a long-term contract in hand. Until this is resolved, and a contract awarded, all plans for a new facility in Ottawa, regardless of location, are on hold.”
Curley said the delay stems from ongoing negotiations between the GN and Indigenous Services Canada regarding funding under the Non-Insured Health Benefits program.
“Our understanding is that the GN cannot award a contract because they have been unable to conclude negotiations with Indigenous Services Canada,” she said.
No agreement has been reached with Larga Baffin for services beyond March 2028, said Charmaine Deogracias, communications manager with the Nunavut Department of Health, via email.
“While discussions continue, the Government of Nunavut is not currently involved in the construction of Larga Baffin’s proposed Ottawa facility,” Deogracias said.
Larga Baffin submitted its building permit application to the City of Ottawa in April.
Curley said the project is essential to ensuring continued, high-quality care for patients from Nunavut.
“A new facility represents a critical investment in infrastructure that is required to continue delivering quality medical boarding home services well into the future,” she said.
What about us long term retired people up here in Nunavt. If and when we have to travel south for medical, we have to pay for hotels meals and transportation. When we return to our home community we put in a claim and are only partially reimbursed. On a fixed income from CPP and OAS, it’s hard enough to make ends meet. Either I leave for medical and live to stave on my return or stay and eat and maybe die. That’s the choice we make. So far I’ve had yo cancel my follow up for kidney cancer and my be canceling again due to the fact that I’m not allowed to stay at Larga even when they say it is a medical board home . The system needs to be repaired. If my cancer does come back and if I can’t afford the sbove costs and I pass away. My death will be on your heads
The larga medical boarding home is for Inuit non-insured health
It was designed for Inuit to be there
As for you sounds your not Inuit
That’s why as you had a job had insured health coverage
I feel 😢 for the NIMBY in the ‘hood where Larga Baffin is going.
Scary.🤕
GN has to fix the patient escort system badly. How many thousands a year are wasted on those who get kicked out of Larga for drunkenness, misbehaviour, and misuse of the purpose of accompanying the patients. Some medical escorts if not many do not even assist those they are supposed to help. There are incidents of patients and their escorts who do not get along and the patient quickly asks for another medical escort. In Iqaluit, you see bilingual patients and even unilingual patients who do not need an escort because Iqaluit has interpreters. They take up a lot of room in the boarding homes for days and even weeks on end. A huge boarding home in Ottawa needs to be redesigned after rehaul of the medical escort system and policies. Some escorts just accompany patients to go shopping.
It’s not thousands.
I remember an article in this paper where they stated the GN lost millions simply from medical escorts who didn’t show up for their flight.
Yet no MLAs will touch the issue with a ten foot pole. Their continued spinelessness just feeds the dysfunction and drags us all down.