Baffin hospital will get new medical waste incinerator

SEAN MCKIBBON

IQALUIT — The incinerator at the Baffin regional hospital has been burning biomedical waste improperly for the last two years, Health Minister Ed Picco admitted last week.

“I think it’s been a problem for a couple of years now,” said Picco outside the assembly shortly after the committee of the whole approved the budget for his department including a $1.2 million line item for “renovations” to the hospital.

During questioning in the committee of the whole Picco revealed that the renovations were mostly to cover the cost of replacing the incinerator.

“Renovations may be Mr. Chairperson a little misnomer here. In that actuality the major part of the work is for the incinerator,” Picco said.

Picco told his colleagues that the incinerator was extremely old does not comply with standards of disposal for the disposal of biomedical waste.

“It does not maintain the temperatures that are required to meet emissions standard and it does not have an adequate mechanism to meter the emissions,” Picco said.

He said that maintenance on the incinerator could not ensure the continued operation of the incinerator for more than a year.

Budget documents obtained by Nunatsiaq News says the incinerator is at risk of being shut down by regulators and is continually breaking down.

When asked by Nunatsiaq News how much of a risk the incinerator posed Picco said, “We need to be able to replace that incinerator and bring it up to standard as soon as we can.”

Baker Lake MLA Glen MacLean questioned the wisdom of building a new incinerator for the old hospital when the construction of a new hospital is only a few years away.

But Picco told MacLean that it would be possible to build a free standing incinerator that would be accessible to both the old and new hospital facilities.