Nunavik | A brand new CLSC... and vacant

A CLSC built at a cost of $45 million in Nunavik’s smallest village, Aupaluk, has not been able to accommodate a single patient since its delivery a year and a half ago, learned The Press.

Posted at 5:00 a.m.

The glitches have followed one another since the official delivery of the building in 2021. Among the unforeseen: when the CLSC was connected to the Aupaluk electricity network, the whole village was plunged into darkness. In addition, containers filled with equipment sent by boat in July 2021 to furnish the new CLSC were not emptied and left full for the South a few weeks later. So much so that the material had to be sent again in the summer of 2022, learned The Press.

A vast project

It was in 2018 that the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services (RRSSSN) launched a call for tenders for the construction of a new CLSC in Aupaluk. In particular, the building must house an emergency unit with a resuscitation room, a dental clinic as well as premises for the youth protection department and for local resources aimed at facilitating access to justice services.

The Pépin Fortin company won the construction contract and delivered the 2,315 m building^⁠2 in July 2021. But since then, the establishment is still not accessible to the population.

PHOTO FROM THE PÉPIN FORTIN CONSTRUCTION WEBSITE

Interior view of the CLSC

Asked about the delays in bringing the CLSC d’Aupaluk into service, the NRBHSS first told The Press that the opening had been delayed “due to the COVID-19 pandemic and an unforeseen failure of the heating system”. The Régie also invoked the fact that the pandemic had “delayed the installation of the main equipment and furniture”. “Teams of specialists are currently working on the repairs needed to make the structure safe. The opening is scheduled for spring [2023] », a-t-on souligné.

The village plunged into darkness

Or, The Press learned that when the building was completed and hooked up to the village generator for operation, all homes in the community of 200 people were cut off from power, plunging it into darkness.

The Pépin Fortin company explains that it delivered the building 18 months ago and redirected questions from The Press to the NRBHSS.

Relaunched on this subject, the Régie affirms that the heating system “presented an intermittent problem”.

This is why the CLSC could not open. With the help of our professionals, the solution has been found and the system will be repaired as soon as possible.

The Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services

With regard to equipment and furniture, the Régie confirms that five containers arrived by boat in Aupaluk, in July 2021. Three of them were emptied on October 22, 2021. But two of them did not were not because of “lack of space in the garage”. The shipping company left with both containers still full on October 23. “Someone told them they could take the other two containers. We have not been able to verify who”, indicates the Régie, which ensures that the containers were returned free of charge in the summer of 2022. However, resulting in new delays.

The choice of site

Health care needs are great in Nunavik. A recent survey of The Press uncovered the long delays in obtaining care in emergencies, which sometimes results in preventable deaths. Patients and doctors took the floor on this occasion to demand more care and services in the North^⁠1.

The CLSC d’Aupaluk is eagerly awaited. But on the ground, many are still wondering why the health authorities have chosen to build such a large establishment in a locality of barely 200 inhabitants, when the needs are crying out in other more populous localities.

Reflection is important. Because a major construction project for a new $460 million hospital is in the pipeline in Kuujjuaq, on the east coast of Nunavik. However, as the Innulitsivik Health Center pointed out last October during a meeting of its board of directors, the health care needs in Nunavik and the strongest population growth are west coast, on the shores of Hudson Bay^⁠2.

At the NRBHSS, it is explained that the old CLSC of Aupaluk is located in an old house of 136 m^⁠2 built in 1979. “This is the smallest and most outdated facility” in the territory. “It was logical to start the construction-repair program of the facilities by Aupaluk”, assures the Régie. The new building must also serve as a civil security shelter to accommodate the population in the event of an unforeseen event, such as a major fire, flood or power failure. Hence its size.

The mayor of Aupaluk, David Angutinguak, explains that the new CLSC has been awaited for years in his community. “We finally got it, after a lot of steps and delays. We finally have it. But it stands there, and is still unused. For reasons that are explained to us little, ”he laments.