Nunavut non-Inuit health travel rules clear as mud

Tammy and Jason Evans of Kugluktuk, shown here with their two children, say getting information about non-beneficiary medical travel from the Government of Nunavut is like pulling teeth. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

The day before Tammy Horn Evans, 34, was scheduled to fly out of Kugluktuk to Yellowknife, with her two-year-old son, Garrett, who was on his way to surgery in Vancouver, she still had no idea how much money the ticket to Yellowknife would cost her.

On Nov. 9 Evans still did not know if she would have to pay a full-fare ticket for herself to take Garrett out or whether she, as his escort, would pay only $250 for Yellowknife portion of the journey.

Prior to this trip, because Garrett was under two, Evans had been able to fly with him, either on a full-fare, Aeroplan, or $250 ticket, because he shared her seat.

But each time, she said the question about her official status as an escort was unclear.

For this latest trip, Evans’ husband, Jason, and her new baby also had to fly out on a personally-paid ticket because Evans is still breastfeeding her other child, a three-month-old boy.

Evans was born and raised in Kugluktuk where her parents, Irene and Kerry Horn run the Coppermine Inn.

She says the Government of Nunavut’s health travel policy should cover long-term non-Inuit residents like her — or, at the very least, provide clear and easy-to-access information to non-beneficiary residents who have no extra health insurance.

When she tried to get information from the GN’s health department, Evans said she received several conflicting answers.

Yet the GN is the government responsible for patient medical travel, Leona Aglukkaq, the federal health minister, said in a recent letter to the daughter of Rev. Mike Gardener.

After a chain of miscommunications with the health department, the retired minister, who has lived on Baffin Island for more than 50 years, learned this past September that he would have to leave the Larga Baffin patient residence in Ottawa and pay thousands of dollars for time spent there as an escort for his ailing wife.

Gardener’s family heard from Aglukkaq nearly two months after Susan Gardener and Pat Angnakak, Gardener’s daughters, wrote to Aglukkaq about their father’s plight.

Aglukkaq’s Nov. 12 letter, obtained by the Nunatsiaq News is addressed to “Ms. Agnokak.”

In her letter to “Ms. Agnokak,” Aglukkaq says she is “sorry to hear of your family’s hardship.”

“Travelling out of one’s home community can present many difficulties,” Aglukkaq writes. “I am very pleased to hear that your particular situation has been addressed by territorial authorities.”

Aglukkaq says the policy for approving client escorts was tabled in the Nunavut legislature two years ago. That was when Aglukkaq still served as the Nunavut health minister.

Since this policy falls under the GN, Aglukkaq says she sent a copy of her letter to the Nunavut premier, health minister and deputy health minister.

But, as Tammy Evans found out, clarification of the GN’s policies for escorts, particularly as they apply to non-beneficiaries living in Nunavut, can be impossible to get.

Repeated requests by the Nunatsiaq News for an interview about medical patient travel for non-beneficiaries have not yet been answered with a scheduled interview.

The latest request for an interview was to obtain information that could provide clarification about how much money Evans would have to spend on an airline ticket as a non-beneficiary escort for her son.