Elected officials in Pond Inlet are rallying once again for an Elders facility in the High Arctic hamlet, after Rankin Inlet recently opened its own long-term care home.
Tununiq MLA Karen Nutarak once again called for such a facility in her constituency in the legislature on May 28, a request she and Pond Inlet Mayor Joshua Arreak have been making for the past five years.
“It’s the funding that is the problem,” Arreak told Nunavut News.
More than 100 people over age 70 live in Pond Inlet, Arreak said, highlighting the need for a regional Elders facility.
“We would need it soon, maybe in two or three years,” the mayor said.
Arreak said the Elders home would require a new building, putting further pressure on the timeline.
Elders need a permanent home that’s easily accessible where they’re guaranteed safety in their advanced age, Arreak explained.
“Sometimes they have problems with their extended family, this would put them in a safe, secure place,” he said.
The hamlet already acts as a hub for four communities less than an hour away by plane, Arreak said, where Elders could travel from for a future facility.
But Health Minister John Main responded to MLA Nutarak that Pond Inlet would have to lobby for an Elders home.
“It could involve a combination of municipal, territorial as well as Inuit organization lobbying. And that’s in terms of looking at future facilities, obviously not something I’m in a position to commit to today,” Main told his colleagues in the legislative assembly in late May.
According to Arreak, the hamlet hasn’t engaged in any advocacy other than going through its MLA.
“If we need to lobby, we are prepared to lobby,” Arreak said.
Nutarak added that it would take two years to build an Elders facility in Pond Inlet. Based on meetings she's held on the matter, her understanding is that Pond Inlet Elders would be sent to Rankin Inlet if no facility is built in Pond Inlet.
Nunavut now has six Elder facilities with the addition of Rankin Inlet’s long-term care home.
