Half of Canadians have negative opinion of latest Liberal budget: poll
A new poll suggests the Liberals have not won over voters with their latest budget, though there is broad support for their plan to build millions of homes.
In early May, six residents of Iqaluit's elders home were put on charter flights leaving the city after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19.
Four were sent to the Embassy West Seniors Living Residence in Ottawa and two others were sent elsewhere in the territory, the Nunavut government said at the time.
Nearly 2 1/2 months later, none of them has returned and the elders home remains closed.
In recent news conferences, Nunavut's health minister Lorne Kusugaksaid the elders would be able to return once staffing permits.
There is no clear timeline for when that will happen, said Anne Crawford, an Iqaluit lawyer and volunteer with Pairijait Tigumivik, the non-profit group that managed the home for the last 25 years.
“When you have that farewell at the airport ... you don't know if they're going to come back,” she said. “They're such incredible people and resources for the communities. And we're taking them away.”
Crawford said the elders thought they would be gone for two weeks - the amount of time for staff to complete isolation.
“Now they're in an institution, in a different city, with no connection to their families.”
Crawford suggested the elders sent out in May should never have been made to leave the territory.
Pairijait Tigumivik approached the Iqaluit Housing Authority and churches in town to see if the elders could be taken in, but the government was “intent on sending them south,” said Crawford.
“It's a crisis. Of course you have to cope with it. But you go to community resources,” she said.
She also said a solution was only needed for four days. Enough staff would have finished isolation by then and the home could have been reopened.
Kusugak said in early June that the closure gave the department an opportunity to make repairs. He said the elders wouldn't return to Iqaluit until renovations were complete.
“There's no safe place for them to be here at this time,” he said.
The department also needs to find a new group to run the home. Pairijait Tigumivik's contract was to expire March 31, but it continued to provide care through May 10.
Crawford said the group had concerns about some of the department's requests, including removing some Inuit staff. She said the group contacted the Health Department to say it wouldn't be seeking a contract extension, didn't receive a response, and ultimately quit.
Kusugak said the plan has always been to bring the elders back.
“When the new management team is in place, the staff are properly trained, and the facility itself is ready to accept elders - at that time they will be here,” Kusugak said.
In a statement to The Canadian Press on July 14, a spokesperson for Nunavut's Health Department said renovations started on May 31 and are expected to finish this summer.
“While the closure is temporary, the facility will not be reopening until the scheduled renovations are completed, the community outbreak is cleared, the contract with the new service provided has been signed and there are sufficient staffing levels,” the department said.
Iqaluit's COVID-19 outbreak was declared over on Tuesday. There are no active cases in the territory.
Elders in Nunavut are regularly sent out of the territory for care. There is currently no care in the territory for elders with dementia or for those needing to be looked after 24 hours a day.
The government plans to build three long-term care facilities in Nunavut - in Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay - by 2030.
There are two elders homes now, one in Iqaluit and one in Arviat, that offer assisted living residential care. They can accommodate eight elders each. There are smaller elder care centres in Igloolik, Gjoa Haven and Arviat, with 28 beds combined.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 24, 2021.
---
This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship
A new poll suggests the Liberals have not won over voters with their latest budget, though there is broad support for their plan to build millions of homes.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
Appointing a trusted person to help with financial obligations can give you peace of mind. In his personal finance column for CTVNews.ca, Christopher Liew outlines the key benefits of naming a confidant to take over your financial responsibilities, if the need ever arises.
The federal government has added $36.4 million to a program designed to support people who have been seriously injured or killed by vaccines since the end of 2020.
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
A photographer who worked for Megan Thee Stallion said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that he was forced to watch her have sex, was unfairly fired soon after and was abused as her employee.
A Minnesota state senator and former broadcast meteorologist told police that she broke into her stepmother's home because her stepmother refused to give her items of sentimental value from her late father, including his ashes, according to burglary charges filed Tuesday.
Australian police arrested seven teenagers accused of following a violent extremist ideology in raids across Sydney on Wednesday, as a judge extended a ban on social media platform X sharing video of a knife attack on a bishop that started the criminal investigation.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a Grade 4 student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.