Picco cautious on Chesterfield group home deal

Nunavut Health Minister Ed Picco said he wants to make doubly sure that leasing is better than building before he signs any deals on the dotted line.

But this new cautious spirit didn’t stop Nanulik MLA James Arvaluk from asking Picco to state exactly when construction on a new home for the handicapped will get under way this summer in Chesterfield Inlet.

“I am getting antsy here. The anxiety has developed over a couple of years,” Arvaluk told the legislature.

This new residence would replace St. Theresa’s Hospital, where the Catholic Diocese of Churchill has looked after the eight handicapped residents since the 1970s. Two years ago, Bishop Reynald Rouleau told the Nunavut government that the Catholic Church wanted to transfer the service contract for their care to the territory.

But Picco said he isn’t ready to make any commitments yet on a proposal submitted by the Chesterfield Inlet Development Corporation for a replacement facility and service.

He said the development corporation’s proposal is too costly, and his department is trying to see how the costs for the proposal can be reduced.

“It fell outside the scope of the budgeted dollars that we had available,” Picco said in the legislature.

Picco said the proposal calls for a new 20-bed facility for Chesterfield Inlet instead of a 10-bed facility.

“They wanted to take more people,” Picco told Nunatsiaq News.

But the cost of running the larger building would also be higher, too. It would bring the daily cost per resident to $650 a day instead of the current $275 a day.

Overall, the budget would rise to $4 million a year from $1 million a year.

“I have to work within the budgeted amount,” Picco said.

Picco is also moving cautiously on finalizing a lease agreement that would see a new boarding home built in Winnipeg for patients coming from the Kivilliq region.

In November, Picco promised to make an announcement on the contract within a few weeks.

“It is approximately three months later,” said Baker Lake MLA Glenn McLean, speaking in the legislature. “Can the minister explain before this House the reason for the delay in the awarding of the contract for the Winnipeg boarding home? I know the wheels of justice grind slowly but I didn’t expect the wheels of health to fall off the wagon.”

Picco said the award to the Kivalliq Development Corporation for the Winnipeg boarding home was contested and reviewed — a process that has slowed down its approval.

But again, Picco said he wants to make sure it’s a sound, long-term deal for the GN before moving ahead. When a hospital is eventually built in Rankin Inlet, this facility will reduce the need for a large boarding home in Winnipeg, he said.

“Because of the length of time of the lease being proposed by the proponent under the contract, we have to make sure that we are able to do a long-term lease. I believe they are asking for a 20-year lease on the new facility they intend to build. So that is part of the delay. It is not a stalling tactic or anything like that,” Picco said.