Sanikiluaq building razed last year by fire was $11M loss
Fire started in service room where heater was under repair; no plans to replace building
The RCMP says a fire that destroyed the old health centre in Sanikiluaq in March 2023 is not considered suspicious. A top Government of Nunavut official says there are no plans to replace the building. (Photo courtesy of Allan Rumbolt)
The cause of a fire that “devastated” Sanikiluaq last year will never be known and there are no plans to replace the building, says an official with the Nunavut government.
The community’s former health centre burned to the ground March 14, 2023. It also housed several government offices and three apartments that were used as staff housing.
No injuries were reported in a fire which destroyed Sanikiluaq’s old health centre on March 14, 2023. (Photo courtesy of RCMP)
The building’s estimated value was $11 million and it was considered a total loss.
It was insured for $13 million, plus about $840,000 for contents. The Government of Nunavut has not received a payout but expects to, according to an unsigned email from Department of Community and Government Services in response to a question from Nunatsiaq News.
The person who maintained the building reported the fire, according to documents obtained by Nunatsiaq News under the territory’s access to information law.
The fire started at around 10 p.m. in the building’s service room, where the forced-air furnace was located. The building’s heating had gone down and repairs were underway.
Firefighters fought the fire partly by taking a backhoe to the part of the building that housed the service room, said Jessica Young, assistant deputy minister for Community and Government Services, in an interview.
“By the time the fire response had concluded, the building had been totalled,” Young said.
“To go in and determine specifically what the cause was, was not possible.”
The fire was not suspicious, the RCMP said.
Everybody in the building was able to get out, and one person was treated for smoke inhalation, according to an internal GN email discussing the fire.
Another email described the building as a total write-off.
“Devastated for the community and our staff,” the email said.
Young said Sanikiluaq’s new health centre opened in 2021 and a new $11-million hamlet office will be completed soon.
Since the fire, the GN has found interim housing and offices for everyone who was displaced, she said. The long-term plan is for the government offices to move to the new hamlet office when it opens.
The three apartments lost in the fire will be replaced as part of the government’s Nunavut 3000 housing plan to build 3,000 housing units in the territory by 2030, according to Young.
She spoke of lessons learned from the fire, which range from public education to updating the government’s standard operating procedures around emergency response.
The GN also worked on a pilot project last year with the Nunavut Association of Municipalities for emergency-planning response in situations where critical buildings in Nunavut’s communities are destroyed.
That work was done in Sanikiluaq, according to Young.
Inuit in general, wait years and years struggle for housing after a fire damages our home. Government staff get apartments or house without hesitation or meeting. No wait time. Nothing. Corruption. Government is the cancer.
Without government staff, no Inuit in public housing would get homes.
Without Inuit you southerners would struggle to find a paying job.
I’m curious why you are speaking of ‘southerners’? The poster spoke of ‘government staff’, the overwhelming majority of whom are Inuit.
Why did you choose to change the topic?
‘Northerner’ is very anti-GN from previous comments from other articles. Probably needs a double layer tinfoil hat
I can find a job pretty much anywhere I want. Why? Because counting from high school to post-grad, I have 4 diplomas/degrees. I have worked in 5 different provinces and territories across Canada. This whole, “you wouldn’t have a job if you weren’t in Nunavut” shtick is old.
These are the sounds that jealous people make, the reality is they feel deeply inferior to southerners.
NWT needs to take control of Nunavut. But than again. All government is corrupt. No one cares.
I don’t get why Sanikiluaq government workers can’t get anyone to build a new office instead of relying on old buildings.
There is a new hamlet office being built that includes space for all the GN staff as well. The old Health Center was just being used until the new offices and the new nurses residence buildings were complete.
Not all displaced workers have an office, Income support workers are working from home.
the new Hamlet office is suppose to have a bunch of office space available if it ever gets finished…. same contractor as the care facility in Rankin Inlet!
This may result to No accountability with elected councillors, No qualification (finance), conflict on interests, No training, or crooked admin, administering Municipal Affairs & Services. You may notice 5% of interim CAO’s roaming (cash grab) right under the nose of CG&S! This is due in part to dysfunctional Municipal Government that cannot keep hold of cash grab penny funds to no accountability of hiring process!
I worked before I went north and worked when I came back south. Worked from east to west. Get a grip, get the knot out of your knickers. If the north was the only place to work there old be 16 million Canadians up there.
Maybe I do, maybe I don’t need a tinfoil hat. But, riddle me this. Why did the government warn a spike in dementia amongst inuit? If it were southern folks that were getting a spike in dementia amongst elders, you’d hear about it non stop on the TV.
Literally from alzheimer.ca about dementia forecasts in Canada,
“By 2030, the number of people in Canada living with dementia could increase 65% compared to 2020. (From 597,300 to 990,600.)”