GN may name new Iqaluit hospital after Monarch

PATRICIA D’SOUZA

The Government of Nunavut is considering naming Iqaluit’s new hospital after Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Health Minister Ed Picco said this week.

The Queen’s keen interest in health issues prompted cabinet to discuss the matter, though no decision has been made yet, Picco said.

Protocol dictates that a building must be complete before it can receive the Queen’s name, which may give the GN the extra push it needs to finally complete the hospital.

When completed, the facility could bear the name: Queen Elizabeth II Nunavut Medical Centre, Picco said.

Cabinet also named a nursing scholarship after the monarch. The $100,000 bursary was announced in a formal welcome by Premier Paul Okalik in the chamber of the legislative assembly during the Queen’s visit last Friday.

“We hope it will be a lasting legacy that will benefit Nunavummiut,” Okalik said.

Though a bursary for nursing students has been in place for the past two years, cabinet ministers wanted to do something special for the Queen.

“We thought it would be a nice idea to have a bursary, and what better way of doing it than having it in honour of our nursing students,” Picco said.

After her speech in the assembly chamber, the Queen was shown a model of the new hospital. Her planned 30-seconds with Picco turned into four and a half minutes because she had so many questions.

“She asked me about some of the health concerns and how long I had been in the North. She asked me a little bit about the job,” he said.

“I found her to be very pleasant. She was quite well-briefed and asked good questions. She was laughing, she was joking with me. People could see that.”

Polished look of royalty

In the chamber of the assembly, the Queen did not demonstrate the relaxed attention she showed while meeting with Picco.

Instead, while a choir sang God save the Queen in Inuktitut, French and English, she wore the polished look of Royalty as she ascended to the legislative assembly’s sealskin throne.

Speaker Kevin O’Brien gave up his usual place in the House and stood at a podium to the Queen’s right to welcome her to the assembly.
“We are proud to show to you the advances we have made in our political and social evolution,” he said.

O’Brien told Her Majesty that elders from all communities in Nunavut had gathered in the House, including an elder from Arviat who lit a quilliq carved in honour of the Queen.

Okalik explained that a song sung by the Suqqait Group outside the legislature is a song of welcome “sung in celebration of a rare and treasured event.”

It was traditionally sung when the whalers returned from a successful hunt. “We sing it again to celebrate your arrival,” he said.

Prime Minister Jean Chrétien said the Queen’s Nunavut visit was an important part of her Canadian tour. “It is not by accident that your visit begins here in Nunavut, the newest member of the Canadian family.”

All eyes were on the Queen as she began her speech, the first official speaking engagement of her 11-day tour, in which she explained why she loves the North.

“Whether your saga is narrated by the great storytellers or through history books,” she said, “it is a compelling account of migration and resourcefulness and instinct for survival.”

She captured hearts by uttering a few words in Inuktitut, saying “Thank you and enjoy yourself” at the end of her speech.

With those few words, she truly became the Queen of Nunavut.