Sailivik Society proposes new elder care facility for Iqaluit

Iqaluit-Niaqunnguu MLA Pat Angnakak and a group of prominent Iqaluit residents are looking for Iqaluit city council's support for their plan for a new elders facility.

The Sailivik Society is proposing to build and run an 80-person long-term care elders facility.

"Currently we really don't have a facility that can meet the current needs and the future needs of our elders," Angnakak told council. 

"Every day I have somebody coming up to me and saying, 'where am I going to put my mom or my dad?' 'Where can I get help in my family to look after my mother or father?' A lot of them have dementia."

Angnakak said the facility would include long-term care beds, dementia care beds, assisted living accommodation, hospice and elders' programs and services. The society would also like to include an Inuktitut-language daycare.

"Elders like to be around children," she said. "I think it would be a really good mix and also because we really need that kind of service here."

She said the Sailivik Society has secured land through talks with the Nunavut Housing Corporation and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association.  Angnakak asked council for a letter of support, and to make the society's zoning revision request a priority.

"I understand it takes a long time, and if we want to open our doors in two years or less, we are requesting that you speed this up for us if you can."

The society is looking at opening the facility in the summer of 2017.