Board will plow ahead with Iqaluit social services takeover

MICHAELA RODRIGUE
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — The Baffin Regional Health and Social Services Board is plowing ahead with its plan to take over the delivery of social services in Iqaluit.

Last week, the board sent formal offers of employment and information packs to eight municipal employees who now work in the Town of Iqaluit’s social services department.

The board also planned to meet with the employees and municipal officials to go over the offers, said Jarvis Hoult, the chief executive officer of the Baffin board.

Hoult has held more than one meeting with Town officials to ensure a “smooth transition” of services to the board.

But the takeover has already run into controversy. The Town of Iqaluit, which has delivered social services in the community for 18 years under a contract with the territorial government, protested the move.

Last March, health board gave notice that it wants to cancel its contract with Iqaluit and deliver health and social services directly.

The Town then asked Health and Social Services Minister Ed Picco to sign a block-funding agreement that would allow it to continue delivering social services. The town also wants to begin delivering more services, such as community health.

To date, the Town has not received an official reply from Picco, but based on media reports, they do not expect he will grant their request, said Paul Fraser, the director of social services for Iqaluit.

“We have to try and make this transition as smooth as possible and as amicable as possible so that our clientele won’t effectively see much change,” Fraser said, adding he still hopes the Nunavut government will intervene.

Should the transfer go through, the Town of Iqaluit has asked the Baffin health board to postpone the transition date from June 18 to July 26. The delay will give the Town time to provide its affected employees the required 90-days notice.

Hoult said he sees no reason not to grant the request.

The town currently has 10 employees working in social services. Two employees, responsible for income support, were not given job offers.

Their contracts are with the Department of Education. The Town has since notified the department that it will not continue to provide the service after July 26.

Fraser said he expects the Department of Education to take over delivering income support.

The Baffin health board says it will integrate delivery of health social services — and do so at less cost.

The Town of Iqaluit also wants to integrate delivery of health and social services and says it would cause too much disruption and confusion to transfer service delivery to a board that is scheduled to be dissolved in nine months.