Who gets to stay in hotels?

Staying in a hotel when you don’t know the language isn’t fun, said Uqittuq MLA Rebecca Williams, who wanted to know whether unilingual Inuit really have to stay in hotels when they travel south for medical treatment.

“If they work in any capacity for the Nunavut Government, they are given hotel rooms,” Williams told Health Minister Ed Picco. “Are they forced to just stay in the hotels? For example, if the person cannot speak very good English, sometimes they are uncomfortable staying in the hotel.”

Picco explained the rules vary depending on the situation of the person, but said stays in hotels are covered for government employees under their Green Shield insurance program.

Nunavut Inuit who do not have insurance coverage, like Green Shield, are covered under the Non-Insured Health Benefits program, NIHB, which is provided by the federal government. The GN puts them up in boarding homes in Churchill, Manitoba; Iqaluit; Ottawa; Edmonton; Yellowknife; and Winnipeg.

Picco said if GN employees felt uncomfortable staying in a hotel, they could make a request to stay at the boarding home.

“In that case, we would accept the patient…. It is not stringent. It is on a case-by-case basis, based on the need of the patient.”

But Picco said he wouldn’t want to see all patients staying at the boarding homes if they had an option of staying in a hotel.