Patients in Quebec’s Nunavik region evacuated over persistent water shortages

A snowmobile makes its way across frozen ice near Inukjuak, Que., in Nunavik, Thursday, May 12, 2022. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

The Quebec government is evacuating patients from a health facility in the province’s Far North because of persistent water shortages in a community.

The Health Department says two patients were flown 1,600 kilometres south to the Montreal area from the Inuit village of Puvirnituq late Thursday, with more expected to arrive.

The Inuulitsivik health centre’s emergency room remains open.

Residents of Puvirnituq, in the Nunavik region, have been without consistent water deliveries for about two months after their water pipe froze in a blizzard in mid-March.

The village of roughly 2,100 people has instead been forced to bring in water by truck in extreme weather on icy, snowy roads.

The Quebec government says the health centre has reported an increase in people seeking treatment for gastroenteritis amid the water shortage.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 16, 2025.