Sanikiluaq mayor complains of decrepit buildings, construction delays

Fuel odours will continue to plague Sanikiluaq’s health centre when spring thaw comes, says the hamlet’s mayor.

Joe Araguttainaq told Lorne Kusugak, Nunavut’s minister of Community and Government Services that the smell, which forced nurses to work out of the community’s school just before Christmas, will be back.

Speaking during the recent Baffin Mayors Forum in Iqaluit, Araguttainaq said the community’s nurses recently wrote to him asking, “Can you tell us which building we’re going to sleep in now?”

“It [the health centre] is not adequate now,” Araguttainaq said through a translator. “It’s no good.”

Kusugak said he was told the problem had been fixed, but Araguttainaq said that’s not so.

And he promised to inspect the health centre during his next visit to Sanikiluaq.

Araguttainaq also complained the community’s recreation is in such bad shape it’s not usable, and about construction delays on a new arena. He said construction happens in fits and starts, but then workers run out of parts.

“The people working on it, they didn’t finish, but they keep leaving town,” he said.

Kusugak said the arena delays were caused by the length of time it took to get cooling equipment for the artificial ice into the community.

“The other communities will be envious of you because you’ll have ice in the fall,” Kusugak said.