Larga Baffin shrinks plans but not capacity for new building

Fewer rooms will still be able to accommodate 350 guests, says spokesperson

Proposed changes to Larga Baffin’s new Ottawa facility in an application to the city reduce the total number of rooms from the originally planned 220 to 176, but the facility will still be able to accommodate 350 clients as intended, a spokesperson for the medical boarding facility said Monday. (Image courtesy of DTAH Architects)

By Madalyn Howitt

Updated April 24 at 10:55 a.m.

Larga Baffin’s proposed new building in Ottawa will contain fewer rooms than originally planned but will still have space for 350 clients, a spokesperson said Monday.

The medical boarding facility which temporarily houses Nunavummiut travelling to Ottawa for specialized medical treatment, received approval from Ottawa city council in June 2022 to build a larger centre near Hunt Club Road and Sieveright Avenue.

The new site will accommodate 350 clients, up from the 195 who can stay at its current Richmond Road location.

Larga Baffin’s original proposal called for 220 units in a six-storey building. However, the updated plan now calls for 176 rooms in five storeys.

In an email Monday, Larga Baffin spokesperson Bill McCurdy said the reduction in height and rooms is due to a change in the distribution of shared rooms and private rooms and should not affect the number of clients the facility can accommodate.

“In reviewing their functional requirements for space, it was determined that the average profile of the medical boarding home client has changed since we originally started planning for a new facility over seven years ago,” McCurdy said.

He added these changes to the site plan application were initiated by Larga Baffin.

In particular, McCurdy said, the number of clients who travel alone versus those with an escort “has changed considerably” with a much greater proportion now arriving at the facility with an escort.

“This shift away from a need for single occupancy rooms toward a greater need for double occupancy rooms enabled us to reduce the number of rooms while still retaining capacity to accommodate up to 350 persons at one time,” he said.

Ottawa city Coun. Jessica Bradley, who represents the Gloucester-Southgate ward where the facility will be built, said in an update on her website April 19 that Larga Baffin lists a summary of changes to its original plan in its site plan application that will be submitted to the city. Typically, site plans show the location of things like buildings, sidewalks, parking spaces and landscaping on a property.

Bradley said the changes were also prompted by community feedback through public consultations.

The changes come months after the Ontario Land Tribunal dismissed an appeal from the Upper Hunt Club Community Association in June 2023 that objected to the building being located at the Hunt Club Road and Sieveright Avenue intersection, citing concerns over traffic and the size of the building.

Typically, site plans show the location of things like buildings, sidewalks, parking spaces and landscaping on a property.

Larga Baffin is expected to submit its official site plan control application to the city by the end of this month.

Earlier this month, McCurdy told Nunatsiaq News they “hope to be under construction by this time next year.”

Note: This story was updated to clarify the location of Larga Baffin’s planned new facility

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(27) Comments:

  1. Posted by John on

    So Inuit will continue to suffer the ill effects of overcrowding so today, so that those already living in comfort and privilege can continue to do so.

    Remember this when someone includes a land acknowledgement as part of their speech, or their email address.

    They live on unceded land and continue to deny indigenous people basic needs.

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    • Posted by The entitlement is real on

      Free flights to and from Ottawa, free pick up and drop off to/from airport, free ride to and from appointments, free room to stay in, free meals for the duration of the stay, staff to serve and clean up after you during your stay. Yet, the possibility of sharing a room (in many cases with the escort who accompanied you on the trip – also free of charge) is somehow denying basic human needs.

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      • Posted by lol on

        I just drove 4 hours for my MRI. Did not receive gas mileage, did not receive hotel. Do people think ambulances are free in the rest of Canada? Entitlement is an understatement.

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        • Posted by John on

          Lol, you drove, on roads? That’s rich. Show me the route between Iqaluit and Ottawa…

          You probably didn’t know you can get medical expenses for lodging and travel back on your taxes, no?

          It’s entitlement to believe that the perceived inconvenience of Inuit isn’t a common issue in Ottawa. This is the third project scaled back to similar concerns. It’s systemic racism masked as local advocacy.

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          • Posted by lol on

            4 hours on a plane and 4 hours driving is the same time. I’d take four hours on a plane with headphones on, free hotel, per diems,, any day. I lived in Iqaluit for 5 years, a free trip to Ottawa for an MRI was also paid time off with the GN not even a sick day used. I now take vacation days, $200 in gas and wear on my personal vehicle with meals at my own cost. And no, you don’t get medical expenses back on your taxes unless you’re closing in on mid four figures a year spent.

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            • Posted by John on

              Oh. You were a transplant when you were here. That’s a lot different. Your musical flights represented a trip back to your culture.

              Inuit traveling for medical purposes face discrimination and contempt when they travel.

              And tell me more about how you don’t understand taxes without telling me! Lol, four figures isn’t tough to hit, especially if you’re really taking all these trips.

              Tuck your privilege back in, it’s showing again…

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              • Posted by Numbers Please on

                Show us the state on the purported ‘discrimination and contempt’.

            • Posted by John WP Murphy on

              Aw poor you. Re-direct the cheap cost of living in Ottawa (compared to living anywhere in Nunavut) to your travel expenses. Living in Iqaluit for 5 years didn’t teach you anything did it..
              .

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            • Posted by baffin island resident on

              Why do we have to travel south for medical care in this day an age? Government should build adequate hospital, so that we can stay in our territory to receive such basic care the rest of the world has in their home land! But we have to leave our family to get medical treatment, submit leave forms from work and be stuck on route to the south hospitals…. ugh! Don’t tell me to move as my home is here in the north! You can’t southernize me as i am rooted to the land and sea around me 🙁

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              • Posted by You Are Discussing a Generational Project on

                You could build hospitals all day long and there still wouldn’t be adequate staff for them. It is a good aspiration, but it is many years away. Give it a few decades and we’ll get there. Get on the parents to get their kids through high school, then into the medical fields.

                It will take another generation or so until we have adequate grads in the maths and sciences to fill these positions, but we’ll get there.

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        • Posted by Where’s the roads? on

          Do people not know there’s no roads connecting to the rest of the country? How privileged can you be to frown upon people complaining about the health system in nunavut.

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          • Posted by Geography and Demography Rule All on

            Privilege, smivilege. No roads, true, a fact of geography that is not going to change for eastern Nunavut anytime this century. Even if there were both roads and services in Iqaluit, hours of travel would still be needed for many. That is not going to change as there will never be full medical services in the communites.

            There will never be equality of ease of medical services in either this country or that territory – geography and demography don’t allow for it. It has ever been thus and will always remain. However, tremendous sums and effort are being made to provide equity of access.

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      • Posted by Services on

        If the medical services were available in Iqaluit then we wouldn’t be forced to travel. Duh!

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        • Posted by Fixed It For Ya on

          Except for everyone who doesn’t live in Iqaluit.

      • Posted by John Ell on

        In the 1930-40s it was called Medicine Chest Act, it’s not free, there is a price.

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    • Posted by Comprehension 101 on

      You may want to actually read the article before commenting. The changes were initiated by Larga, not by nearby residents, the city or any other imaginary foe.

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  2. Posted by Northerner on

    @lol you’re lucky if you can drive to your appointments. Would you like to be airlifted to another city without help? Look at usa. Patients are being kicked out even if they have cancer or life threatening injuries if they can’t pay. Would you like to live there? You sound like you bloody do. Go down to the usa. Work like the IRS is on to you.

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    • Posted by Off target on

      You totally missed the point. Lol responded to a post complaining that having to share a room was somehow a breach of human rights, when it obviously isn’t. You too can be within driving distance of medical care if you chose to live closer to one. There are millions of Canadian who travel great distances for medical appointments. Only a select few do not have to pay anything to do so.

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      • Posted by In Addition on

        Not to mention the difficulty of travelling to get culturally appropriate care in the official language of your choice – a real concern for my parents. There are lots of French speaking medical providers, but if they want to access English specialists it is a five-hour drive.

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  3. Posted by Big Ben on

    I feel bad for the residents in the neighbourhood once the drunken escorts start their usual wanton mayhem.

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    • Posted by Ned Flanders on

      Amen. 💖

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  4. Posted by Pack up and Move on

    You make it sound almost affordable to just pack up and move to where the services are. As if.

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  5. Posted by Alan Klie on

    So where exactly is this new facility going because Sieveright Ave. and Hunt Club Rd. do not intersect.

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  6. Posted by Judas Henry on

    How about more Inuit get into the medical profession? 🤪

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  7. Posted by Helen Walsh on

    Were people hoping for 14-20 people in the room in various states of intoxication with mattresses strewn over the floors? Make people feel more at home…

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  8. Posted by John WP Murphy on

    But the nearby residents (racists??) are fighting it, aren’t they?

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  9. Posted by This Is Rationale Behaviour on

    This is to be expected. Facilities of this sort are often see as affecting property values, traffic patterns, neighbourhood safety, etc. This is rational behaviour on the part of the neighbourhood residents until their concerns are addressed.

    You are, of course, mistaken that the race/ethnicity of the patients is a driving force. Any facility of this type will be resisted just about anywhere – because of the nature of the facility, not necessarily the makeup of the residents.

    If you wanted to move the medical boarding home in Iqaluit to the plateau, do you think that it would be welcomed with open arms?

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