IQALUIT - Iqaluit's new medical boarding home was given the go-ahead after councillors approved the development application in a 3-2 vote last Tuesday evening.

An artist's rendering of the new medical boarding home set to be built in Iqaluit by Nova Builders. The home, which will be for patients visiting the capital for medical reasons, will be a four-storey structure with 45 guest suites. - image courtesy of the City of Iqaluit

Deputy mayor Simon Nattaq tipped the vote to a narrow victory, with Councillors Claude Martel and Allen Hayward also voting in favour of the new development and Jim Little and Jimmy Kilabuk voting against. Coun. David Alexander abstained from voting. Coun. Glenn Williams and Mayor Elisapee Sheutiapik were not present.

The lot for the destined boarding home is located in the vacant space across the street from the old hospital. The other side of the lot borders the Frobisher Inn.

Council recently approved rezoning of the space to allow development on the spot but some councillors remained unconvinced the area was suitable for the new boarding home.

"If I were an outsider and I came down here for medical reasons I wouldn't want to stay there. If I turned around I would see the bar," Kilabuk said through an interpreter.

"This development is not in the best interest of the community," added Little. "It's a catch-22. You give someone the lease and they can build whatever they want on it."

He said he recognized the need for a new boarding home in Iqaluit but did not think the planned location was the best in the long-term.

Little said he would rather see a boarding home on the land behind the hospital and felt the current spot would ruin one of the city's last remaining "green spaces."

Developer Nova Builders plans to build a four-storey structure with 45 guest suites for visiting patients and their families.

It will have eight parking spaces and a drop off area. All patients will be shuttled to and from the nearby hospital on a bus.

This would provide much-needed additional space to out-patients visiting Iqaluit for medical services, said Martel.

"I don't know if you've been to the (current) boarding home," he told other councillors. "It's crowded."

Pairijait Tigumivik, the Iqaluit Elders Society, also supported plans for the new boarding home.

The society oversees the operation of the current boarding home, Tammaativvik Boarding Home, and agreed a new facility is needed.

"We feel that it makes good sense to have the building as close as possible to the hospital in the event of medical emergencies during stormy winter weather," society president Ooleepeeka Nooshoota wrote to council.