New Rankin Inlet long-term care facility opens to elders this month
24-bed centre one of 3 the territorial government plans to open by 2030
Politicians and elders tour one of the rooms of the newly built 24-bed Rankin Inlet long-term care facility on Jan. 14. (File photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Nunavut elders will soon start moving into the new Rankin Inlet long-term care facility.
“We are on the verge of completing this important milestone in providing long-term care closer to home,” Health Minister John Main said in a news release Tuesday.
“We look forward to having elders returning to the territory in the coming weeks.”
Starting May 26, each week three to four elders currently living in long-term care at Embassy West Senior Living in Ottawa will arrive in Rankin Inlet on direct medevac flights co-ordinated by the Department of Health, the release from the department indicated.
The 24-bed facility in Rankin Inlet was substantially completed in January, with 22 permanent beds and two temporary-care beds.
At the time, Main told Nunatsiaq News there were 70 Nunavut elders living in long-term care facilities outside the territory.
The Rankin Inlet elder home features two identical wings each with 12 single bedrooms with bathrooms. There are gathering areas, a hair salon, country food kitchen, rehabilitation gym, ventilated room for carving and crafting, and a prayer hall.
It is set to have 40 to 50 full-time staff.
Sakku Investments Corp. and Embassy West Senior Living will jointly oversee the facility under their 10-year contract with the Nunavut government that’s worth $15 million per year.
The $59.4-million project is one of three long-term care facilities the government plans to build in the territory by 2030 as part of its Aging with Dignity strategy.
Work is underway on 24- and 48-bed facilities in Cambridge Bay and Iqaluit, with properties secured for both establishments.
The Cambridge Bay elder-care home is expected to be completed by fall 2028 and the Iqaluit facility in late 2029 or early 2030, though no opening dates have been released. There was no price estimate available as of March.
The Rankin Inlet facility was originally to be completed in 2023, and was a response to the government’s assessment that the “continuing-care system in Nunavut is beyond capacity and does not meet the needs of Nunavummiut,” according to the GN’s planning document.
Completion was pushed to 2024 because of payment issues between the project’s contractor and subcontractor, then was delayed again until 2025.
Forty to Fifty full time staff to 22-25 patients? Whoa! Unless that’s just journalists not knowing how to count, that is super expensive, and beyond ridiculous. Plus there would be part-timers and casuals on top of that, probably. The GN is insanely inefficient. Luckily, you don’t need that many staff to run it so it could still run fine when it will be inevitably understaffed.
Great to have it though, and have it open! Just gotta figure out how to run these things more realistically and cost-effectively. It can be done.
How low can you get? I cherish my elders and it looks as you don’t itiq. 3000 GN to look after Nunavut, gross and inefficient.
You can cherish your Elders and still be critical of the cost of government programs to care for them. The government has spent $2.5 million dollars per long-term care bed to build this facility, and now will spend at least $625,000 per year for their ongoing care.
At what point would you get “low”? What if it had been $250 million to build the facility and $2.5 million per year to care for them? $1 billion facility and $100 million per year to care for them?
As long as there is a number where you would say it’s too expensive, then it’s a subjective topic and is open to reasonable debate.
Sorry to have your peace disturbed for people wanting elders close to home and sent off to Ottawa! Your tax dollars are more important!
Will the patients still get good food as this is not Ottawa? I hope so.
Ask the responsible department, they don’t respond to post here or FB.
Great to keep elders in the community.
Looking at the cost model based on the article:
Cost per person per year:
$625,000 (….+ capital + any operational costs not covered in the $15M contract).
Cost per person per month: $50k
Unless contract payment is tied to staffing levels, government costs won’t change.
As a Tax payer and as this is a Government facility, I would expect that it is open to any and all Nunavut resident not only the Inuit portion of the region. We are seeing more and more long term non-beneficiary members who are aging out and need care as well, I hope this isn’t as discriminatory as the regular health system is towards non-beneficiaries.
Non-beneficiaries have elders as well, but I’m sure this will be one of the requirements to be allowed in. I will be curious to see if it is 100% beneficiaries place here. I’ll be 70 this year and am hoping to stay in the region as this is my home but as I need more and more help hope I don’t have to leave to get care.
“At the time, Main told Nunatsiaq News there were 70 Nunavut elders living in long-term care facilities outside the territory.”
I always find that this statement is not actually accurate and that this only covers the elders that lack the family or independent financial capabilities for PRIVATE facilities (Again an ELDER covers every person that is old not only beneficiaries). I know of many elders that are in fact in elder care facilities that aren’t counted because they are financially covered by either their own savings or other family members but because of lack of resources are put into homes in the south.
THESE STATS LIE… and are only based on those in Government care which is extremely narrow minded by these types of politicians, who think that those that can afford it should fend for themselves.
The GN should also look to open these types of facilities that are Private. The issue of ALL elders staying in the north is only going to get exponentially worse as the total population starts to become dependent on care.
The only elders who will be kept closer to home by this facility are those elders from Rankin. The rest of us would rather live out our lives in our own communities and in our own homes. Put the money there and it will be much less costly per individual.
For the types of patients who need long term-care, such as those suffering from dementia or other medical conditions, it always sounds wonderful for them to stay at home, and yet people in emergency response and health centres can tell you how many times elders who require 24 hour care are left alone because the family members don’t make the sacrifice necessary to give up their lives to care for the patient. How many times they’ve talked to family members who are bitter because they’re the ones everyone else left to care for grandfather or grandmother while they headed out on the land.
Cheaper? Maybe, if you have someone willing to sacrifice their own lives, unpaid, to care for them.
I imagine if you gave every family of an Elder $650,000 per year, they’d probably find a way to care for them without being bitter.
I am pretty sure they won’t be discriminated against, most of the non Inuit elderly patients have a lot of safety net. If you’re worried about Inuit doing the same thing that was done to them we won’t. However if the money built by funds solely directed at Inuit and other Indigenous programs then it might happen.