Accutech Engineering Inc. was retained by the Government of Nunavut as the Prime Consultant for the design and development of the Mens’ Correctional Healing Centre. The Government of Nunavut, Department of Justice had identified the need to provide Nunavummiut with a correctional facility unlike any in Canada – with programs which were unique and relevant to the people of Nunavut.
Prior to the construction of the Rankin Inlet Facility, criminal offenders in Nunavut were serving sentences in cramped conditions, due to the undersupply of beds in the territory as a whole. In addition to this, offenders from the Kivalliq region did not have a regional facility in which to serve sentences, they were placed in facilities in the Baffin or Kitikmeot regions, or out of the territory entirely. The existing facilities in Nunavut also were subject to extremely limited program delivery space. The construction of this 48 bed facility in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut helps to alleviate some of these difficulties.
Construction commenced on the foundations in March of 2010 and substantial completion was achieved in March 2012. The facility was actually completed at a construction cost of $30M, $4M less than the original budget of $34M.
The project is located in the Community (Hamlet) of Rankin Inlet, in the Territory of Nunavut. The community is located on the west side of Hudson Bay, approximately 1,500 kms north of Winnipeg, and has a population of approximately 2,800, of which 80% are Inuit.
Access to the community is available from southern Canada via regularly scheduled flights out of Winnipeg, Manitoba. There are no permanent or winter roads connecting Rankin to Manitoba or any other community in Nunavut.
Supplies are shipped into the community via air freight or maritime transportation. Shipping via sea occurs once or twice every summer when the ice in the Bay has melted. Air freight is transported regularly on scheduled commercial flights.
Rankin Inlet does have a “utilidor” system, and as such, normal services for potable water and sewage are provided by the town.
Electrical supply in Rankin is provided via a diesel electrical generating plant. Electricity is then provided to each building in the community via overhead service wires and poles. The diesel and heating fuel for the community is shipped via barge each summer, and the supply must last until the next year barge shipment.