Umiujaq daycare repairs stretch into 2026 after winter damage
Amautik child care centre closed after pipe burst; repair work expected to start in October
The Amautik child care centre is closed until 2026 after a heating system failure last December caused burst pipes. Repairs are expected to keep it closed until then. (Photo courtesy of Kativik Regional Government/Nunavik Childcare)
The Amautik child care centre in Umiujaq is once again looking for a place to call home after its former site was damaged when the heating system failed last December.
The centre, operated by Kativik Regional Government, shut down after pipes burst when the heating system failed. Since then, repair work has been delayed because maintenance crews were unable to arrive due to weather conditions and construction materials that can only be delivered during the sealift season.
“We never expected for the closure [to take] such a prolonged time,” former director Maggie Tooktoo wrote in an April 30 update to parents through Facebook. “We hired local maintenance workers, but the damages are significant.”
Tooktoo said she contacted the Umiujaq municipal office and the Nunavik Housing Bureau for relocation options but is “waiting for answers.”
The Nunavik Housing Bureau has no information regarding the situation at Amautik childcare centre, communications co-ordinator Maude Bouthillette said in an email to Nunatsiaq News.
Amautik is currently closed, but when it’s open it cares for 29 children in the community between the ages of six months to just over three years and is run by eight staff members, current director Lizzie Novalinga Tooktoo said.
The centre briefly operated earlier this year in a classroom at Kiluutaq School. But that arrangement ended Aug. 8 when the school had to prepare for students’ return to classes, forcing another closure, Novalinga Tooktoo said.
She said she has made an official request to rent Umiujaq’s newly built gymnasium to temporarily house the daycare. “Maybe the council will have a meeting first about it,” she said.
Nunatsiaq News contacted the Umiujaq municipal office but was told there was no one available to speak about the childcare centre’s relocation.
Renovations to the Amautik building itself are not scheduled to begin until October, after the construction materials arrive.
“That’s when the renovations will be,” Novalinga Tooktoo said. “After the renovations, the daycare will be operational sometime in 2026. I believe it will be spring or summer.”
(0) Comments