Rankin Inlet medical boarding home ‘not feasible right now,’ says health minister
Passengers are stuck at airport when flights are cancelled or delayed, Kivalliq MLAs say
A boarding home for medical travellers in Rankin Inlet is “not feasible right now,” says Health Minister Janet Brewster. (File photo)
Citing a low volume of medical travellers passing through Rankin Inlet, Health Minister Janet Pitsiulaaq Brewster has put the idea of opening a medical boarding home there to bed.
For now, at least.
“Health officials conducted a preliminary review and found that the average number of clients overnighting in Rankin was too low to make a boarding home feasible,” Brewster said in the legislature Tuesday, responding to questions from Alexander Sammurtok, the MLA for Rankin Inlet North-Chesterfield Inlet.
The average number, Brewster said, is three travellers per night.
“Though it is not feasible right now, there is work being done to see what we can do to better support medical travellers who are passing through Rankin Inlet and who do get laid over,” she said.
Sammurtok has long advocated for a medical boarding home in Rankin Inlet to accommodate Kivalliq travellers experiencing lengthy layovers and weather delays on their way to and from medical appointments.
“I wish the minister or your executive would be in Rankin Inlet when there actually are patients waiting in the airport due to weather or cancellation of a flight,” Sammurtok said in the chamber.
Sammurtok isn’t alone in his calls for a medical boarding home in Rankin Inlet.
At their recent regional meeting, mayors representing seven Kivalliq communities adopted a motion calling on the government to build a medical boarding home in Rankin Inlet.
A boarding home would “meet the health-care accommodation needs of medical clients throughout the Kivalliq Region,” said the resolution, which was sent to Premier John Main on March 4.
In the legislature Tuesday, Aivilik MLA Hannah Angootealuk said travellers from Coral Harbour and Naujaat — the two communities she represents — often find themselves waiting in the Rankin Inlet airport for “six hours to 12 hours” for their next flight.
Brewster said the Department of Health reserves 10 hotel rooms with two beds in each to accommodate medical travellers staying in Rankin Inlet.
She encouraged people who encounter delays to contact the department’s medical travel team.
“They can always reach out to the medical travel staff, who will come and support those travellers whether it’s with food or blankets, or helping them to get a day room so that they can have a safe and warm place to stay during their layover,” Brewster said.
If it’s not going to be in Baffin, no chance. That region has history of belittling the other two regions (like; distasteful in mouth). Bully.
Why should the GN build a boarding home anyway? Another hotel would be a much better answer. There is certainly more than enough demand.
A feasibility study for a boarding home in Rankin may be considered “not needed,” but let’s look at the bigger picture. Many executive staff in Health HQ are still non-Inuit, and the finance department is largely made up of people brought in from outside the country. Yet we continue spending money there instead of investing in something that would actually help Nunavummiut.
Patients travelling for medical care are often stranded in Rankin Inlet, and many hotels turn them away. Somehow the only place consistently approved is the hotel attached to the B&W store. Meanwhile, patients are left without proper accommodations.
Maybe it’s time to reconsider priorities and invest in a proper boarding home in Rankin that supports patients first.
Let’s ask the current photo op premier while we are at it !!
Excuse me? The previous Premier was focused on photo opportunities, whereas the current one prioritizes his responsibilities.
Hoteliers in RI must be fighting hard against this from WPG and and major ARV and RI Co. Hotels costs in RI are passed premium cost; only Govt, IPGs and Corporations can fork this cost and they do every single day. Of course NU Premier/Health Minister will say not enough traffic. Check Calm Air skids. Bumping many daily. He owns his choice to NU Voters, not to interest groups.