SANIKILUAQ
Sanikiluaq is being ignored on multiple levels by the Government of Nunavut, according to Andre Larabie, the hamlet's senior administrative officer.
Sanikiluaq's senior administrative officer, Andre Larabie, said the hamlet is being ignored at a time when the Sanikiluaq Health Centre, above, has reached a critical point and new office space is desperately needed in the small community. - NNSL file photo
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Located on Flaherty Island in Hudson Bay, Sanikiluaq is one of 13 Nunavut communities who are not receiving new public housing units by the end of 2014.
The allocations were announced at the legislative assembly on May 16 by Peter Taptuna, the minister responsible for the Nunavut Housing Corporation.
Overcrowding at the Sanikiluaq Health Centre has reached a critical point and new office space is desperately needed in the small community, Larabie said. Many offices at the centre have dual, even triple, purposes.
Larabie, who has spent more than 35 years living in the North, said he feels like the community is being ignored at the worst possible time.
"Apparently there are five or six positions that cannot be filled at the health centre until we get new office space," he said. A fourth nurse is needed to alleviate the staff's hectic workload.
Staff housing is also lacking and the deadline for sending materials by boat to Sanikiluaq is quickly approaching, he said.
"The deadline is at the beginning of June," Larabie said.
"If we don't get any material by then there won't be any construction in Sanikiluaq this year. It's like a chess game now. We haven't heard back from the CGS (Community and Government Services) people and we're being completely ignored on our housing needs."
Hudson Bay MLA Allan Rumbolt said he wrote to the Government of Nunavut with some options to acquire office space in Sanikiluaq, but added the GN doesn't seem interested in committing to a long-term agreement if a building isn't already in place.
"Our health centre is overcrowded and the building is just too small for our growing community," he said in an e-mail.
"I feel that by moving the social, mental health and homecare workers out of the health centre, it would free up space for the nurses to work."
Larabie said a local, experienced contractor could start building 20 new lots but Sanikiluaq needs a commitment letter from CGS before construction can begin.
"It's a matter of putting supplies on a ship and sending it here. How difficult is that?" he said.
Having been in the North for so long, he said he has never seen a year where nothing was done for a community.
He mentioned other crucial needs, such as hiring a probation officer for the hamlet. More than 50 offenders have been given community service sentences but there is no one to monitor them.
"It's becoming a crisis," he said. "They need someone to report to and right now that's the social worker, but she's not a probation officer."
A lagoon project has also been postponed because of a technical issue that needs to be dealt with, Larabie was told.
"We want the government to take a look at us and see that we've been doing great things here," he said.
Health Minister Keith Peterson visited Sanikiluaq on March 25, along with members of the Department of Community and Government Services (CGS), to see the health centre first hand. In a statement made at the legislative assembly on May 14, Peterson said CGS officials would keep working with Sanikiluaq representatives to find a solution to the issue.
