Nunavik’s deceased may now rest in peace

Kuujjuaq’s Tulattavik health centre is only one of two hospitals in the region that house morgue facilities. The rest of Nunavik communities have to use churches, arenas and sometimes shacks to store deceased residents before they can be buried. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

KUUJJUAQ — By the end of 2015, Nunavimmiut will have somewhere private — and refrigerated — to visit deceased family members and friends.

Starting this fall, the Kativik Regional Government is rolling out a project to install morgue facilities in each of the region’s 14 communities. That’s only a year after the need for morgues was first raised at a KRG meeting.

This fall, five communities — Kangisualujjuaq, Salluit, Tasiujaq, Aupaluk, Inukjuak — will receive their new morgues, to be installed by the end of the year, said Fredéric Gagné, director of the KRG’s municipal public works department.

The rest of Nunavik’s communities should see their facilities delivered and installed by the end of next year, he said.

The addition of morgues responds to many community concerns and requests for facilities dedicated to holding the bodies of deceased Nunavimmiut until they are buried.

Outside of Puvirnituq and Kuujjuaq, whose hospitals house small morgues, other communities have kept their deceased in shacks attached to churches, or at the local arena or health centre.

But that doesn’t leave mourning family members a private place to visit or prepare the body for burial.

“Down south, all of that is managed by a funeral home,” Gagné said. “But no one has that mandate here.”

The facility itself is roughly the size and shape of a sealift container, insulated, while half the interior is refrigerated, where bodies would be laid. The other half of the unit would heated and be set up to receive visitors, Gagné said.

The morgues will be managed by the municipality, although the units themselves will likely be installed next to a local church, he said.

Two Ungava coast communities — Quaqtaq and Kangirsuk — have already purchased their own similar morgue facilities, although the unit in Kangirsuk has not yet been set up for use.

The KRG said the new morgues will cost between $40,000-$50,000 a piece, including installation.

Communities across Nunavut have also asked for morgues. While shacks might suffice as makeshift morgues during the winter, communities say they need refrigerated rooms to hold bodies in the summer months.