The Founder of Nunavut Battles to Spend His Senior Years at Home

In February 2025 the Nunavut Department of Health moved John Amagoalik to Embassy West Senior Living in Ottawa after an infection forced the amputation of part of his right leg.

Amagoalik and his friends set up the John A. Committee, raised $30,000, and secured an accessible unit that costs $2,000 a month. An airline donated a flight, and on June 12, 2026 – 16 months after his move – he returned to Iqaluit.

Territorial health minister Janet Pitsiulaaq Brewster turned down the committee’s request for $16,000 a month to cover Amagoalik’s care, offering only two hours of personal support per week.

On September 16, two notices of application for judicial review were filed in the Nunavut Court of Justice, seeking a court order that forces the government to fund his care.

Nunavut has only six seniors’ facilities for about 40,000 residents, yet 73 elders from the territory are currently cared for at Embassy West, the sole out‑of‑territory centre for complex needs.

Amagoalik’s struggle highlights the broader challenge of providing adequate elder care in remote Indigenous communities and raises questions about self‑determination and health policy in Nunavut.

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