New Nunavik House in the works for Montreal: regional health board

Here’s a look at the front of YMCA facility on Tupper St. in downtown Montreal where patients and escorts from Nunavik stay. Plans are in the works to replace the facility, the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services said. (FILE PHOTO)

Patients and escorts at Nunavik House in Montreal can now sleep easier.

That’s because “as of today,” all the 150 beds at the “Y” residence at 4039 Tupper St. in downtown Montreal have new mattresses, said Minnie Grey, the executive director of the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services, in an April 4 interview.

The health board also has a major change in the works, she said: the board wants to see patients, escorts and the Module du Nord, which provides patient services for Nunavimmiut in Montreal, move into the new facility sometime in 2014.

Grey said all the technical paperwork for the project was to be submitted to the health and social services department in Quebec City on April 5.

When these plans for the new Nunavik House are approved, the project will go to tender and a Montreal realtor will start looking for a facility that’s suitable, she said.

One improvement Nunavimmiut can count on in the future facility: a special kitchen and meal space where Inuit can cook and eat country food.

Grey said she is sympathetic to Inuit who don’t like the food at the current Nunavik House.

“They have a right to complain because they aren’t used to Qallunaat food. They want country food,” she said. “We don’t provide country food unless people bring their own in.”

Grey said all meals which follow the Canadian food guide offer two choices and are “all nutritious.”

But “when you’re not used to it. You complain,” she acknowledged.

As well, any mice, which were found only in YMCA building’s basement, have now been caught or killed, and “the situation is under control,” said Grey responding to recent complaints about the facility in a Nunatsiaq News online story.

As for the 11 p.m. curfew, which came into effect for all residents on March 1, Grey said she’s hearing people like the peace and quiet, and there are no plans to remove the curfew.