Kuujjuaq vet clinic faces uncertainty amid funding shortfall

Kuujjuaq Veterinary Clinic is at risk of closing nearly three years after it opened, as the municipality searches for a funding partner.

The only such clinic in Nunavik started in 2023 as a pilot project, with the help of Makivvik Corp., Nayumivik Landholding Corporation, the Northern Village of Kuujjuaq, Société du Plan Nord and the University of Montreal.

The university had been sending veterinary students as interns for two weeks at a time, while the village had covered their travel, meals and accommodation.

After a resident whose animal died at the clinic filed a lawsuit in fall 2025, village councillors reassessed its finances and found it was underfunded. The municipality started to provide an extra $50,000 per year.

But this wasn’t sustainable, Gadbois said. In March, the municipality met with its partners to explore alternative funding options.

“Our budgets are very tight. It’s not in our mandate to be providing money to run a veterinary clinic,” he said Tuesday in an interview.

Gadbois said the partners agreed to keep the clinic running until they reconvene in June.

On Monday, the Kuujjuaq Veterinary Project Facebook page posted that the clinic’s work “in its current form is stopping.”

This prompted calls for the clinic to be saved.

Géraldine-G. Gouin, who helped manage the clinic on a volunteer basis, said it is not currently taking appointments, as the last interns have left.

She added that the university cannot send new interns until it’s clear who will take over the clinic’s responsibilities.

“I think no one wants the clinic to stop, even the [municipality]. We just hope an organization is gonna take the lead,” Gouin said.

Liam Callaghan spent more than a decade spearheading a veterinary clinic. He said he understands that the local government can’t shoulder the costs.

“It’s now up to the community and local organizations to take up that slack and help move the project forward,” he said.

Liam Callaghan, who worked for years to establish a vet clinic in Kuujjuaq, is trying to keep it afloat. (File photo by Cedric Gallant)

Callaghan said he plans to meet with the volunteers to identify which organizations to reach out to, emphasizing that the clinic has always been a community effort.

Nunavik Housing Bureau provided a trailer for the clinic, while Nunavik Building Inc. contributed another unit for staff housing. Local contractors volunteered their time and materials to connect the two buildings.

“This project would not have gone forward without thousands of hours of volunteer work and young people who really are dedicated,” Callaghan said.