GN ponders fate of historic Saint Theresa Hospital

MONTREAL — It’s an imposing building, one that towers over the community of Chesterfield Inlet.

Once the Eastern Arctic’s sole hospital, it’s now a home for the mentally and physically handicapped.

When it was built in 1931, the Saint Theresa Hospital was the largest building in the eastern Arctic. Designed to be totally self-sufficient, with huge reservoirs for fuel and water, a greenhouse and even a chicken coop, “it was built on a rock” to last forever, according to the late Sister Thérèse Isabelle.

The structure may still be solid, but now its future is less than certain.

Last November, Bishop Reynald Rouleau of the Roman Catholic diocese of Hudson Bay told the Nunavut government that the Catholic Church can no longer run the home.

Rouleau wants to let the current service contract between the church and the Nunavut health department expire April 1. He has agreed since then to extend this contract for a short period.

But running the residence is a responsibility Rouleau said his diocese is now eager to pass on to the territorial government.

“I no longer have the time or energy to supervise such a specialized residence,” Bishop Rouleau explained. “When the sisters were there they looked after all the operations. Now, it’s too heavy a burden.”

The last of the Grey Nuns left Chesterfield Inlet in 1999.

At present, the Hudson Bay diocese owns the building, but Rouleau said he would like to sell it to Nunavut. It’s a solid building, he said, which was renovated in 1993 to the building standards of that time.

“I love that building. It would cause me pain if it were demolished,” Rouleau said.

Building must be renovated

Nunavut’s health minister, Ed Picco, says extending the service contract by a few extra months will give his department some badly needed time to evaluate its options.

But Picco already has questions about the condition of the building. A preliminary review by the department of public works indicated a “considerable amount of money” might have to be invested to bring it up to code.

“It is quite an old facility and although it’s structurally very sound, it is not up to code,” Picco said in the Nunavut legislature.

“If I go in there and take over the facility immediately and run it as a government facility, then it has to be brought up to code.”

Picco said it could be “cost-prohibitive” to renovate the structure.

The residents of Chesterfield Inlet want the service contract to stay in the community because it creates jobs and training opportunities.

Have-not community

Picco said he’s sensitive to the fact that Chesterfield Inlet is a “have-not” community, which needs the residence.

“I do know there’s an economic impact for the community of Chesterfield Inlet,” Picco said.

“I believe there’s six to eight full time positions, as well as about $3,000 that’s pumped directly into Chesterfield Inlet through groceries, for buying things and so on for the facility.”

But Picco also said there’s no money in the capital plan to build a new facility in the community. He’s said he’s open to future involvement from an Inuit development corporations to put up a new residence or buy and renovate the present structure.

The health department will also identify other locations to move the present residents of the Saint Theresa home, possibly to Baker Lake, where there is already a suitable building.

Eight residents live at Chesterfield Inlet residence. Four have lived there for more than 13 years.