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Fifty nurses and six physicians are being sought to fill new positions at the Cambridge Bay and Rankin Inlet health care centres.
Also, the Government of Nunavut hopes to hire an additional 50 nurses to fill vacant positions around the territory.
"It's happening," said deputy minister Bernie Blais in an interview on Thursday. "Our goal is to get 100 nurses."
That may seem like a lot, but Blais says they are planning for the nursing shortage that will hit Canada hard in 2006.
"We have to prepare for that," said Blais.
The Department of Health and Social Services says their international recruitment drive for doctors and nurses is going well.
However, they have not hired anyone yet.
Nunavut is recruiting internationally with Trillium, a Toronto-based health care professional recruiting company.
There are three recruiters in Nunavut working with the Toronto team, allowing them to better understand the unique culture and lifestyle here to help them pitch Nunavut as a place to work and live.
The company is recruiting in places as far away as the Philippines and New Zealand, mainly because those regions have an over-abundance of trained nurses.
The Nunavut nursing program at Arctic College is a source of pride for the department, said health minister Levinia Brown last Thursday.
"It's very important for us to have Inuit in the work force," she said.
But Nunavut currently does not have enough home-based nurses to fill the health care positions by 2005. That's when the two new health centres are expected to open.
The other big challenge beyond hiring is providing housing for the health care workers once they get here.
Health officials say they are working closely with the housing department on this issue.
A 10-unit apartment complex is going up in Rankin Inlet, and another 10-unit complex is also being built in Cambridge Bay to house the new nurses, said Blais.
