Inuvik (June 20/03) - The Inuvik Regional Hospital was officially opened Monday morning with a ribbon cutting ceremony, speeches, and awards that were followed by a celebration with drum dancing and food in the lobby of the $40 million facility.

A crowd of about 200 shouldered into the lobby of the new building to hear congratulatory speeches from a crowd of dignitaries including the hospital CEO, Inuvik's mayor, two ministers, two MLAs, the Commissioner and the Member of Parliament.

Inuvik Regional Health and Social Services chair Nellie Cournoyea saw the hospital's construction through from when she was health minister to the completion as chair.

She recalled how, in 1986, the federal government committed to building the new Inuvik hospital when Stanton Regional Hospital was built in Yellowknife. Funds were set aside annually for the new building and Cournoyea said she was keeping track.

"I always knew I had those little papers in my back pocket that said that money was ours," Cournoyea recalled. "If somebody tried to forget it, well, that was too bad."

But cash was short when it came time to tender the project, so one of the first private/public projects or P-3 project was tried, but failed.

"After a while it got so complicated that they decided to go for a straight tender type of construction," Cournoyea recalled. "That was the time I was in the most fear, because I thought I would lose it then."

She thanked the GNWT and the builder Ninety North for their patience in working with the board on a unique project which finally began in 2001.

"I know sometimes you thought that I was asking for things that really couldn't be realized," Cournoyea said.

When she needed some extra strength or determination, Cournoyea recalled the two people she wanted to build the hospital for: Agnes Semmler and Sarah Simon.

"I thought about them all the time," Cournoyea said.

GNWT Health Minister Michael Miltenberger shared the success of the project with his counterparts who had worked on the project as well.

"There's been five ministers involved in this project," Miltenberger said. "There was myself, Jane (Groenewegen) Floyd (Roland), Kelvin Ng and then Nellie (Cournoyea)."

"It took us a while, but we got the job done."

In saying goodbye to the 41-year-old hospital, elder Bertha Allen spoke on the early days of health care in the Delta.

She recalled a story how the women once took a young mother in Aklavik to the hospital.

"All the men were out where they're supposed to be -- looking for "rat pushups," she laughed. "They wrapped her up in a blanket and put her in a toboggan and they ran as fast as they could."

Allen was one of the first to give birth in the first Inuvik hospital and told of how Rowena Edwards gave birth to her daughter Cathy on Jan. 23, 1961, to beat her out.

"I was patiently waiting for mine to be born and one morning I woke up and here my neighbour had snuck up and had her first baby," she laughed. "After that, I lost track; I don't know what number Dennis was."

Allen joked that she's already making plans to move into the long term care unit.

"I already know which room I would like," Allen said. "Certainly not the room that's facing the graveyard."