Puvirnituq declares state of emergency over water shortage
Health centre announces plans to move patients to Montreal
Puvirnituq’s municipal council declared a state of emergency Saturday over the Nunavik village’s water shortage caused by a frozen intake pipe. The declaration gives Mayor Lucy Qalingo the authority to order evacuations, to recruit help with the crisis and request help from other levels of government. It will be in effect for 10 days. (File photo by Cedric Gallant)
Puvirnituq’s council declared a state of emergency Saturday, while the regional health board said some health centre patients and elders will be moved to Montreal because of an ongoing water shortage.
The state of emergency gives Mayor Lucy Qalingo authority to order the evacuation of residents, to call in the help of anyone deemed capable of assisting personnel already working on the problem, and to spend money needed to overcome the emergency, the village’s declaration says.
Declaring a state of emergency also allows the mayor to ask for “immediate and exceptional assistance” from the Kativik Regional Government, Makivvik Corp., and the provincial and federal governments.
Council passed the declaration 4-0 on Friday, with three councillors absent from the meeting. The state of emergency will be in effect for up to 10 days.
The village on Quebec’s Hudson Coast has been dealing with water supply issues since March — for more than two months — because the main pipe that brings water from the river to the village’s water treatment plant froze in March.
To work around the frozen pipe issue, water trucks have been making the five-kilometre trek to fill up at the river and bring untreated water to homes. That has caused a delay in services and forced the community to live under a boil-water advisory since March 20 because the trucked-in water has not been treated.
Only three of five trucks are on the road; two of them are awaiting repairs.
The result is that some residents have not been receiving water. Others have been driving snowmobiles to the river to fill up containers themselves and bring them home.
On Friday, the Nunavik health board and the Inuulitisivik Health Centre announced its services were “being reorganized” to meet the “challenging situation” caused by the water supply disruptions.
Some hospitalized patients and some residents of the Sailivik long-term elder facility were to be moved to three partner hospitals in Montreal, a joint statement issued Friday night by the health centre and Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services said.
Calling it a “difficult adjustment,” health board executive director Jennifer Munick-Watkins and health centre executive director Sarah Beaulne said, “We do not yet know how long these measures will be in place.”
Patients and elders who needed to be transferred to Montreal were to be accompanied by nurses from Puvirnituq and to receive “compassionate care” along the way, Munick-Watkins and Beaulne said.
The health board’s plan is to bring people home “once water services are stabilized,” their statement added.
Bottled water is being distributed by community service teams, Munick-Watkins and Beaulne’s statement said.
Loaders were being used to try to clear snow and open routes between the pumphouse and homes in the village, it added.
The health centre remains open for emergency services and urgent medical appointments, but it has postponed some regular and specialized services.
So it took two fires, a duplex and a shack burnt down to get it off to a start, huh? Just like when dogs maul people and then they start catching them, huh? Only after. It’s never too late for all but it’s too late for some. People have to be used as examples for things to start kicking. Point is that this is what leadership looks like. This is what danger looks like.
Yes, they attempt to blame the devil, you know them people from south, but someone nudge them on it. Hey , it’s lack of compassion within the community, not south. Leaderlessship within. They always shoot the dog after the mauling, in mean time dog roams working up to the bite. Lots history of that there too. An example of a total reactive , rather proactive councillors and council. Should bring back the administrators of old. And KRG, do a ticket sale, airlines, and call them when their one way seat is ready., that includes the directors and chief of police.
Where do I mention southerners?
When Puvirtummiut are in a state of emergency, where are their counsellors? 3 absent out of 7. Big round of applause here.
Once a council member couldn’t attend a meeting because of his bad leg, but didn’t turn down the offer to go Montreal , aka, Nunavik heaven. More money spent on Montreal restaurant and hotel , then on the community. Tax payers should be aware so many Inuit from Nunavik wasting tax money in Montreal , it’s incredibly wrong. It’s covered up under the code name funding. And when it comes to real vital services people get left out. No respect should ever be given to them, me never did , never will, because it’s corruption at its worse.
I recall one prioritizing hockey tournaments and a show of fireworks for snow fest that will only last 30 minutes. They didn’t even take out the money from the rec committee for the fireworks, either. They took it from the rec departments funds. All that “funding” went to useless stuff when we so need upgrades. I was told to shut up about it. We are talking about an upwards of $250,000 and for what? A select few? Their select few?
This situation is unreal. Why did the mayor and council wait so long to declare a state of emergency? Where is the KRG in all this? What about Makivvik? How has nothing been done accordingly? This delay is completely unacceptable. No one in Canada should ever have to experience a situation like this. Access to clean water is a fundamental right, and the fact that communities are still struggling with something so basic is unacceptable. All of Nunavik Leaders including Provincial and Federal Leaders have failed to act with urgency and responsibility to prevent this from happening again. The state of emergency should have been declared in the first week—water is an essential element for life!
This is ridiculous. Where are the Quebec and federal governments? And now, we have another out-of-touch official claiming that bottled water is being distributed so people can fill up their own tanks? Since the beginning, our so-called government should have requested military assistance to provide proper services and fix the problem, but instead, they chose to wait—again!
People need water not only for drinking, Mr. Lafrenière, but also for hygiene, household cleaning, and even fire trucks. It’s not rocket science. Why has it taken this long?
We have a Governor General who is Inuk—shouldn’t she have thought about helping her people? Yet, here we have another figure who appears disconnected, enjoying the luxuries of power while Inuit communities suffer. Enough is enough! It is time for a serious cleanup, and those responsible must be held accountable for this major crisis.
They are already point fingers at the outside for causing the problems, all the while have no competence of being in leadership themselves. The only thing they do well, is spend money at coop, for refreshments and get to Montreal asap, care not even about the children that rare themselves up.
Lafrenière stated he has been trying talk with Kativik Regional Government for three weeks and they are impossible to deal with. Pita Aatami and Makivvik Corporation said they recognize the importance of clearly establishing all players’ roles and responsibilities. Which means KRG was asleep at the switch. The reason for this is the opening of the 70 million dollar Sanaaq Center. Don’t get me wrong. The center is a great thing. However the chairperson and Co-chairperson along with a few of KRG’s Council were living it up spending 10’s of thousands of dollars while Puvirnituq was falling apart.
The real true Inuit story of Nunavik is the good people of Nunavik. We know them. But there’s another story book thats appears to overlook all that goodness of good people. Its the corruption a story read over and over without any acknowledgment. Today there are corrupted members of the nunavik inuit society that sheep themselves hidden under the expense of the good inuit. Believe , you are not seeing a representation of real inuit under most of the formed communities snd organizations. In these organizations and groups are the corporate corruption, they may I identify as inuit but they are self serving individuals who take advantage of Inuit. You’re going to see them travelling around Nunavik, but mostly in Montreal travelling and living it up first class in the name of good Inuit. People beed to open their eyes and acknowledge this first of all and denounce that corruption, and work towards restoring inuit concerns to it again. So look out for the fake Inuit living off the take advantage funds of inuit life.
Your Liberals hard at work collecting our taxes and spending it elsewhere!!!
It makes people go side with south of the boarder tactics of firing useless people.
An invitation to attend one of the biggest corporate shows in Nunavik. All you have to do is open up your minds and observe. You already have front roll seats , just train your self, educate yourself on the mobility of people in Nunavik and Montreal from Nunavik. I’m talking about citizens of Nunavik. The travel for hospital and essential services can be understood, that’s for good reason. But look at the mass movement of people traveling for these same old same old meetings , whee they get together to discuss the same old thing they discuss in every meeting. And the same members can be seen on multiple committees and boards, collecting hundreds of dollars per day meeting , to make the Puvirnituq water situation not even be an issue of concern yesterday, today , and never. And the plane tickets, the hotels food car rentals! Over and over, amen.