MLAs call for concrete answers on medevac contract, airport work
Ministers queried Wednesday in the legislative assembly
Health Minister Janet Pitsiulaaq Brewster did not say which company will provide medevac services to Nunavut under a new contract expected to take effect April 1. (File photo by Jeff Pelletier)
Updated on Thursday, March 12, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. ET.
MLAs called for more information from the Government of Nunavut over medevac services and airport work in the legislative assembly Wednesday.
With the GN’s new contract with its medevac provider expected to “go live” by April 1, it’s not clear who was awarded the contract and if the provider can meet that deadline, Cambridge Bay MLA Fred Pedersen said.
He said the GN issued a request for proposals from medevac contractors on April 7, 2025, and just one company, Keewatin Air — which has provided that service for years and is the current medevac provider — submitted a bid.
Health Minister Janet Pitsiulaaq Brewster replied it’s an ongoing process but did not offer the name of the selected provider or confirm if one has been selected.
“I can let the member know once that process is complete,” she said.
Brewster wasn’t the only cabinet member facing tough questions.
Aivilik MLA Hannah Angootealuk said Naujaat’s airport urgently needs its runway extended and asked what the GN is doing about that.
In 2024, letters from the hamlet and Calm Air on the need to extend the 3,400-foot runway by at least 600 feet were tabled in the legislature, Angootealuk said.
The runway’s current length makes the airport inaccessible to larger cargo planes, Calm Air president Gary Bell said in one of the letters. The use of smaller planes limits Calm Air’s capacity to provide essential goods like groceries and medicines.
Naujaat airport’s runway is the shortest in Nunavut, confirmed George Hickes, the minister of transportation and infrastructure.
He said funds have been allocated for engineering designs for the runway extension, but did not offer a start date for the work.
Hickes said he is working on options for possible federal funding of construction costs.
Correction: This article has been updated from its originally published version to identify the writer of a letter expressing concerns about Naujaat’s runway length.
While we are at it, would love to know the delay with the new terminal in Rankin Inlet. Beautiful new building that appears to be finished just sitting there with lights and heat on for over a year, yet still not open? What kind of incompetence is going on here?
Hey Rankin Resident; poor workmanship or AKA poor financial management?
Shortest in Nunavut 😂 Kimmirut is only 1899 foot long 😂 I guess Kimmirut don’t exist 😂
Grise Fiord too, plus pangnirtung is even smaller then naujaat.
The actually runway lengths…….
1 Grise Fiord. 1,675 ft (511 m)
2 Kimmirut 1,899 ft (579 m)
3 Pangnirtung 2,920 ft (890 m)
4 Naujaat. 3,400 ft (1,036 m)
Its going to need 100% improvement too, my wife waited two days for one in Arviat. not due to weather but lack of airplanes. The current carriers needs to improve considerably.
Grise Fiord is only 1,675 feet long.
George Hickes Do your homework 😂 this is where are tax dollars going 😂
Good luck on the medivac contract,Exchange investment corporation owns all the Airlines, it will be given to them on a gold platter, easy question to answer Janet. Airstrips good luck on that one to, Pangnirtung has been needing a new airport for 40 years dangerous, kimmirit same issue, same time, they will keep studying this for another 40 years, no airstrip extensions coming to your community in this term of this assembly, easy one George, tell them the truth or, keep telling them your doing study’s for the next 4 years,now on that tell that new Liberal MP Lorie, and people wonder why nobody votes in elections here.