Disabled will stay in Chesterfield Inlet

Nunavut’s health minister, Ed Picco, says the former St. Theresa’s Hospital in Chesterfield Inlet doesn’t meet modern building standards as a home for the disabled, but he says the community will keep the 30 full and part-time jobs attached to the services provided there.

Picco said Nunavut’s department of health and social services is looking for a private business willing to build a new 20-bed residential facility in Chesterfield Inlet and run programs for residents.

Like the old church-run service, the new facility would provide a home for mentally and physically disabled adolescents and young adults.

Last November, Bishop Reynald Rouleau of the Roman Catholic diocese of Hudson Bay told the GN that the Church could no longer run the home. He said the church was willing to give the building to the GN.

The St. Theresa Hospital, built in 1931, was for many years the largest building in the eastern Arctic.

“It’s not cost-conducive for Nunavut to take over the facility,” Picco said.

Picco said a new facility could be up and running by December, 2002.