Larga-Baffin owners hold out for patient services deal

SEAN McKIBBON
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — The owners of an empty private medical boarding home for Inuit medical travelers in Ottawa hadn’t counted on running a hotel.

But that’s just what Nunasi Corporation and Qikiqtaaluk Corporation say they may do while they bargle for an elusive deal with the Nunavut government.

The consortium, which owns a majority share in the Larga-Baffin Home, hopes eventually to win the contract to house medical travelers, despite being rejected by the Baffin Regional Health and Social Services board in February.

“Now without a contract, the viability is in question,” said Jerry Ell, vice chair of Larga Baffin, and president of Qikiqtaaluk Corporation.

The property cost $215,000 to buy a year ago, and Ell said they will operate it as a hotel for government and business travelers in the interim.

Never give up

Ell said Larga-Baffin Ltd. is still trying to negotiate a deal to provide patient accommodations either directly with the Nunavut Government or as a sub-contractor to the Ottawa Health Services Network Inc. (OHSNI), which won the medical services contract with the Baffin health board.

The health board will cease to exist next year and OHSNI’s contract expires March 31, 2000. Larga-Baffin Ltd. may have an advantage as an Inuit-owned company in securing a contract directly with the government.

At a joint meeting of the board and OHSNI in March, OHSNI representatives recommended the board not use Larga-Baffin boarding home. Instead they recommended the board stay with Rotel, a motel on the Ottawa General Hospital’s campus.

Some Inuit patients have complained Rotel provides inadequate translation services and not enough country food.

Larga-Baffin president Bill Davidson said that, once operating, the home would have 24-hour translation services. Furthermore, he said, almost all of the home’s staff would be Inuit and bilingual and menus would feature country foods.

Davidson and Ell both maintain that the service provided at their boarding home would be more culturally sensitive than accommodations at Rotel.

Larga home costly

But a report to the Baffin health board in March said Larga-Baffin would not be able to house all of the patients that come to Ottawa and would create a two-tiered service, with some patients getting better cultural services than others.

“That already exists,” said Ell. “There are different levels of patients. Some are unilingual and some are bilingual Inuit.”

Ell said those that need the more extended translation could stay at the Larga-Baffin Home.

But the extended services also have a price.

Housing a medical patient would cost $124 a day Ell said. At the March meeting of the health board a report tabled said the Larga-Baffin proposal would cost $200,000 more per year than it does currently under the Ottawa/Baffin agreement.

Although the Larga-Baffin Home had a grand opening last weekend, Ell said it would not be operational until mid-July as a few minor modifications have to be made to the building to comply with safety regulations.

“We believe this facility and the services offered within it will help ease the burden of travelling to an unfamiliar location, particularly for our elders,” Ell said.