Nunavut is Canada's newest, largest, and most sparsely populated territory — 25 communities, none connected by road, most reachable only by air. That geography shapes everything about how care for an ageing or unwell family member actually works here. There is no single hospital system to navigate the way there is in southern provinces. Instead, care is built around your community health centre, with more complex needs met through medical travel south or, increasingly, through new long-term care homes being built inside the territory. This guide sets out what is actually available today, what is genuinely still limited, and who to call first.
Almost every Nunavut community has a community health centre, and this is where care for a family member at home begins — there is no separate central intake line to find first. The territorial Home and Community Care (HCC) program is delivered through these centres and can include homemaking (cleaning, meal assistance), personal care (bathing, dressing), nursing care (injections, dressing changes), rehabilitation support, and respite care for family relief.
You do not need a doctor's referral to start this process. Anyone — the person themselves, a family member, or a friend — can contact the community health centre or local home care office directly and ask for a home care assessment. A health professional then assesses what services are appropriate for the situation. All residents enrolled in the Nunavut Health Care Plan are eligible for this assessment.
Who to call first. Your community health centre is the single entry point for home care, continuing care and respite requests. If you are not sure who to contact or want to escalate a concern, the territorial Home and Continuing Care program can be reached at 867-975-5941.
Care in Nunavut is organised loosely by level of need. Home and Community Care supports people who can remain safely at home with visiting help. Above that sit two kinds of facility-based care: Elder Homes, which provide Level 2–3 assisted living for seniors aged 55 and over (currently in Arviat and Iqaluit, each with a small number of beds), and Continuing Care Centres, which provide Level 4–5 care for people with more complex medical needs (currently in Cambridge Bay, Igloolik and Gjoa Haven). These existing facilities are small — typically eight to ten beds each — which is central to why long-term care capacity has been such a pressing issue territory-wide.
This is the issue that matters most to families, so it deserves a plain answer rather than either false reassurance or an outdated crisis narrative.
For years, Nunavut had no purpose-built long-term care home of its own for residents needing the highest levels of care, meaning many elders were sent to facilities in southern Canada — overwhelmingly to Embassy West Senior Living in Ottawa — far from family, community, and often from Inuktut-speaking staff. Around the time Nunavut's first dedicated long-term care home opened, roughly 70 Nunavut elders were living in long-term care outside the territory.
That is now genuinely changing, though not finished. The Kivalliq Long-Term Care Centre in Rankin Inlet — Nunavut's first purpose-built long-term continuing care home — began admitting residents from 26 May 2025, with elders returning from Ottawa in stages via medevac flights. It has 24 beds (22 permanent, 2 for temporary/respite-style care) and includes culturally specific features such as a country food kitchen, a carving room and a prayer space.
As of mid-2026, the Government of Nunavut has confirmed further facilities are planned but not yet open: a 48-bed home for Iqaluit, still in the design phase with no operator yet assigned, and a 24-bed home for Cambridge Bay, expected around 2028. The territory's stated longer-term target is 156 extended-care beds by 2030. None of that capacity exists yet — it is planned, not built.
What this means for your family today. If your relative needs a level of care beyond what a community Elder Home or Continuing Care Centre can provide, out-of-territory placement (usually to Ottawa) may still be the realistic option in 2026, though Rankin Inlet has meaningfully reduced this for Kivalliq region families in particular. Ask your community health centre and the territorial Home and Continuing Care program directly what is available for your relative's specific community and needs — capacity changes as new beds open, and this is not something to assume from an old news story.
It's also worth knowing the government's own framing of the trade-off: officials have noted that a very small share of Nunavummiut elders actually need facility-based long-term care, while it consumes the large majority of territorial elder-care spending — which is part of why Premier John Main has spoken about wanting to expand home care so more elders can stay in their own communities for longer, alongside building new facility beds. No firm funding commitment or timeline for that home-care expansion has been announced.
Because so much specialist and higher-level care sits outside Nunavut, the territorial Medical Travel program is central to how families experience the health system here. It arranges and funds travel for patients who need care unavailable in their home community — most often to Iqaluit, Yellowknife, Ottawa, Winnipeg or Edmonton.
An escort (a family member or approved companion) can be funded to travel with the patient in defined circumstances: where the patient needs someone to give consent on their behalf, has a physical or mental condition that makes solo travel unsafe, speaks only Inuktut and is travelling to a facility without an interpreter, needs help with a medical procedure after arrival, or is travelling for maternity/confinement care. Escorts must be at least 19, sign a Medical Travel Escort Agreement, and be in good health and able to travel independently themselves.
Travel costs for approved escorts are covered through the Nunavut Health Care Plan, Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB), Extended Health Benefits, or an employer plan, depending on the person's circumstances. Apply through your local health centre or case manager; the regional office approves escort requests, and a declined request can be appealed, with decisions typically issued within about five days.
Most of Nunavut's population is Inuit, and for Inuit and First Nations clients, the federal Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB) program — funded through Indigenous Services Canada and administered locally through the Health Insurance Programs Office in Rankin Inlet — sits alongside the territorial system and covers medical transportation and specific health benefits not otherwise insured. If your family member has an NIHB client number, mention it when arranging medical travel, as it can affect what is covered and how claims are processed.
Nunavut does not have a standalone caregiver payment or a dedicated territorial respite grant that a family applies for directly. Respite exists as one element of the Home and Community Care program, arranged through your community health centre after an assessment, rather than as its own separate program with its own application.
A territory-wide study led by the Nunavummi Disabilities Makinnasuaqtiit Society, interviewing 543 people across all 25 communities, found that Nunavut family caregivers commonly lack access to childcare, respite care, home care support and financial assistance, and are often unclear about what is actually available to them. That is a genuine, documented gap — not something this guide is going to paper over. If you are caring for someone in Nunavut and feel unsupported, that experience matches what the research found, and it is worth raising directly and repeatedly with your community health centre and MLA.
What families in Nunavut can access regardless of territorial gaps are the federal supports available to carers across Canada: the Canada Caregiver Credit, the Disability Tax Credit, and EI Compassionate Care Benefits. See our Disability Tax Credit guide and the full Canadian Entitlements Checker for how to apply.
Federal carer supports — including the Disability Tax Credit, Canada Caregiver Credit and Compassionate Care Benefits — apply to Nunavut families the same as anywhere else in Canada.
💰 Canadian Entitlements Checker ⚖️ Power of Attorney — guide 🏥 Hospital Discharge — Canadian pathwaysLast verified: August 2026. Figures, thresholds, and programme details change regularly. Always verify current information at the source links above before making decisions.
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