{"id":533024,"date":"2026-03-13T05:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T05:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/533024\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T05:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T05:22:16","slug":"rankin-inlet-medical-boarding-home-not-feasible-right-now-says-health-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/533024\/","title":{"rendered":"Rankin Inlet medical boarding home \u2018not feasible right now,\u2019 says health minister"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Passengers are stuck at airport when flights are cancelled or delayed, Kivalliq MLAs say<\/p>\n<p>Citing a low volume of medical travellers passing through Rankin Inlet, Health Minister Janet Pitsiulaaq Brewster has put the idea of opening a medical boarding home there to bed.<\/p>\n<p>For now, at least.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHealth officials conducted a <a href=\"https:\/\/nunatsiaq.com\/stories\/article\/gn-studying-feasibility-of-rankin-inlet-medical-boarding-home\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">preliminary review<\/a> and found that the average number of clients overnighting in Rankin was too low to make a boarding home feasible,\u201d Brewster said in the legislature Tuesday, responding to questions from Alexander Sammurtok, the MLA for Rankin Inlet North-Chesterfield Inlet.<\/p>\n<p>The average number, Brewster said, is three travellers per night.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThough it is not feasible right now, there is work being done to see what we can do to better support medical travellers who are passing through Rankin Inlet and who do get laid over,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Sammurtok has long <a href=\"https:\/\/nunatsiaq.com\/stories\/article\/mlas-reignite-calls-for-medical-boarding-home-in-rankin-inlet\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">advocated for a medical boarding<\/a> home in Rankin Inlet to accommodate Kivalliq travellers experiencing lengthy layovers and weather delays on their way to and from medical appointments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wish the minister or your executive would be in Rankin Inlet when there actually are patients waiting in the airport due to weather or cancellation of a flight,\u201d Sammurtok said in the chamber.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/nunatsiaq.com\/ads\/260227-qulliq-energy\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"373\" height=\"331\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/A-14705.94.png\" class=\"no-lazy-load wp-post-image\" title=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sammurtok isn\u2019t alone in his calls for a medical boarding home in Rankin Inlet.<\/p>\n<p>At their recent regional meeting, mayors representing seven Kivalliq communities adopted a motion calling on the government to build a medical boarding home in Rankin Inlet.<\/p>\n<p>A boarding home would \u201cmeet the health-care accommodation needs of medical clients throughout the Kivalliq Region,\u201d said the resolution, which was sent to Premier John Main on March 4.<\/p>\n<p>In the legislature Tuesday, Aivilik MLA Hannah Angootealuk said travellers from Coral Harbour and Naujaat \u2014 the two communities she represents \u2014 often find themselves waiting in the Rankin Inlet airport for \u201csix hours to 12 hours\u201d for their next flight.<\/p>\n<p>Brewster said the Department of Health reserves 10 hotel rooms with two beds in each to accommodate medical travellers staying in Rankin Inlet.<\/p>\n<p>She encouraged people who encounter delays to contact the department\u2019s medical travel team.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/nunatsiaq.com\/ads\/260130-indian-hospitals-march-13\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"373\" height=\"331\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/260123.100.95.png\" class=\"no-lazy-load wp-post-image\" title=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey can always reach out to the medical travel staff, who will come and support those travellers whether it\u2019s with food or blankets, or helping them to get a day room so that they can have a safe and warm place to stay during their layover,\u201d Brewster said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Passengers are stuck at airport when flights are cancelled or delayed, Kivalliq MLAs say Citing a low volume&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-533024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}