A New Vision for Health

The Department of Health and Social Services of the Government of Nunavut has one of the most complex mandates imaginable - to address health needs of children and youth, to deal with mental health and addictions, to fight chronic disease and promote injury prevention, and to deliver Inuit home and community care, all in a region with three official language, a sparse and widely distributed population, and limited resources.

Funding for these and other programs is provided under an agreement with Health Canada; and that agreement is coming up for a negotiated renewal.


Last year the Department asked Aarluk Consulting to help them prepare for their upcoming negotiations with a major strategic planning exercise. Since the focus was on community-based health programs, Aarluk began at the ground level, interviewing community personnel in representative communities, as well as representatives of Health and Social Services and Health Canada. The process culminated in an Aarluk-facilitated strategic planning retreat for H&SS personnel and associated agencies (including the Department of Education and the Canada Health Agency of Canada).

The result of the planning process is  a vision for community based health programming, and a new, more flexible program and administrative structure and accountability framework for community health programs.  Communities will now have greater freedom to address their specific needs , while at the territorial level the new arrangement will allow the department to organize funding to reflect territorial priorities.

Aarluk Project Team members for the strategic planning were Fred Weihs, Victor Tootoo, Greg Smith, Alex Ker and Galin Kora. Special thanks to Janelle Budgell, Territorial Wellness Program Coordinator, for her support.