A Yellowknife building formerly known as the Slave Lake Inn is the new boarding home for medical travellers arriving in the city from other communities.
Until last week, many people coming to Yellowknife for treatment or passing through the city on medical travel elsewhere were housed at the Vital Abel boarding home in Ndilǫ.
On Saturday, that operation moved to the former hotel on Franklin Avenue’s hill down to Old Town. The building will now be known as the Keskorie boarding home, the NWT’s health authority said on its website.
Contact numbers for the boarding home remain the same and there is no impact on the Larga Kitikmeot boarding home or the Nunavut government’s travel program, the health authority stated.
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Operated by the Nova Group of Companies, the Slave Lake Inn only opened at the start of 2020 and found itself almost immediately in an environment devoid of tourists as the pandemic hit.
The Yellowknives Dene First Nation’s economic arm announced in October last year that it had purchased the 31-unit hotel to serve as a new boarding home.
Det’on Cho Management said the investment would improve comfort and safety for people on medical travel.
The Vital Abel facility had 19 rooms and a capacity of around 70 people, including patients and their escorts. Last year, Det’on Cho said Vital Abel would be turned into 11 apartments for members of the First Nation.
