Nunavik patient hostel move still alive, official says

Nunavik, Montreal health agencies to host meeting

By SARAH ROGERS

The public is invited to attend a meeting  at 7 p.m. on June 16 at 7400 boul. St-Laurent in Montreal where the Montreal regional health authority and the Nunavik regional board of health will discuss the proposed renovation of a former Chinese hospital into a new residence for Nunavik patients and escorts in Montreal. (FILE PHOTO)


The public is invited to attend a meeting at 7 p.m. on June 16 at 7400 boul. St-Laurent in Montreal where the Montreal regional health authority and the Nunavik regional board of health will discuss the proposed renovation of a former Chinese hospital into a new residence for Nunavik patients and escorts in Montreal. (FILE PHOTO)

KANGIQSUJUAQ — The chair of Nunavik’s regional health board says the plan to move Nunavik House to a former Chinese hospital in Montreal’s Villeray neighbourhood is still on the table, despite resistance from some local residents and officials.

“A small group made it bigger than it really was,” Alasie Arngak, the chair of Nunavik’s regional board of health and social services, told Nunatsiaq News June 9. “After all this, I think we’re feeling more positive.”

Opposition in Montreal’s Villeray neighbourhood has settled down, Arngak said.

That’s after meetings where many from the Villeray-St-Michel-Park Extension borough said they didn’t want to see the hospital at 7500 St-Denis turn into a residence for patients and escorts from Nunavik.

About 50 residents showed up to a Villeray borough meeting June 1, some to complain about the plan to renovate the hospital and allege that it would attract crime to the neighbourhood.

Tensions also boiled over at a May 31 meeting in Montreal between officials from the Montreal regional health authority, Nunavik health board and borough, when Arngak felt she was ready to pull the plug on the project.

“We were shocked,” Arngak said. “We were expecting a good conversation, but before the meeting even started, we already felt isolated.”

Representatives from the borough weren’t interested in the proposed renovation of the empty hospital, which has been a magnet for graffiti, she said.

“It was confusing,” Arngak said. “They never asked us what our needs were. The building has been vacant for 10 years, so why not? After a couple hours, I was fed up. I finally stood up said ‘We’re just sitting around hearing all the negative stuff about Inuit. What’s your decision?’”

The borough officials said “no,” that they weren’t interested in seeing the project in their community.

Arngak still thinks the Villeray hospital is a good location for Inuit patients and their escorts.

“I think it’s a very good area,” Arngak said, noting the hospital lies close to public transit and shops along Jean-Talon and the Côte-de-Liesse parkway.

“It’s a really quiet area and that’s a good thing,” she added.

In the end, it won’t be the borough council that decides to host the relocated Nunavik House — that decision rests with the provincial government.

Montreal’s health agency and the Nunavik health board plan to host a meeting in the borough to provide more details on the project.

The meeting, open to the public, is scheduled to take place June 16 at 7 p.m. at 7400, room 245, boul. St-Laurent in Montreal.

Arngak won’t be at the meeting, but she said representatives from Nunavik’s health board will be there.

While the current Nunavik House in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce operates on an extended lease, Arngak remains hopeful the move can happen soon.

The Villeray location was “ready to go” before the debate over the renovations erupted, she said.

Nunavik health officials had looked at some other site around the city, Arngak said, but they didn’t fit the criteria for a new patient residence.

The only shortcoming to the St-Denis site is its lack of parking, she said.

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