Cambridge Bay complains about Nunavut medical policies for non-Inuit

Syd Glawson, the mayor of Cambridge Bay, doesn’t understand why he was allowed to stay at the Larga Edmonton patient boarding home for years, but was recently refused accommodation at the new Larga Kitikmeot home in Yellowknife. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

The Cambridge Bay hamlet council passed two motions recently in response to complaints about Government of Nunavut medical travel policies for non-Inuit residents

The motions direct the hamlet to write two letters the regional director of health and social services in the Kitikmeot.

One letter asks why some people from Cambridge Bay can’t stay at the Larga Kitikmeot patient boarding home in Yellowknife and the other letter inquires about the GN’s patient escort travel policy and procedures for accommodations and lodging.

The councillors were responding to complaints from non-beneficiary residents of Cambridge Bay who have to foot the bill for lodging when they get medical care in Yellowknife, but get free lodging when they stay at Larga Edmonton in Alberta

One was a pregnant woman, whose spouse is an Inuit beneficiary.

The woman spent three weeks in Yellowknife at her own expense after she was refused lodging at the Larga Kitikmeot patient boarding home and was required to pay for her spouse’s expenses when he accompanied her as an escort.

Another complaint came from Syd Glawson, the mayor of Cambridge Bay.

Glawson and his wife recently spent a few nights in Yellowknife for scheduled medical appointments and wasn’t allowed to stay at Larga Kitikmeot.

Glawson has lived in Cambridge Bay for 30 years.

Glawson, a pensioner who is eligible for extended health care benefits, said he has always been allowed to stay at Larga Edmonton, the patient boarding home in Edmonton, without any problems, when he required medical care.

There, Glawson said he was picked up at the airport, taken to the patient boarding home and, as he said in an interview from Cambridge Bay, receive “the whole shebang” in care — from food to transportation to medical appointments.

But during his last trip to Yellowknife, Glawson and his wife were forced to pay hundreds of dollars to stay at a hotel in Yellowknife.

Only their first night was paid, he said. For the other nights he said he received only $20 a night in compensation.

That adds up to a lot of money for a couple who get by on a government pension and part-time mayor’s salary, Glawson said.

Glawson said doesn’t think he’s being treated fairly, and said it’s ironic that a resident in his 60s receives less support for chronic health issues than many children in the community.

“I don’t think it’s right at all. We all pay taxes,” Glawson said.

About 15 to 20 per cent of Cambridge Bay’s 1,500 residents are not beneficiaries of the Nunavut land claims agreement.

Many permanent non-Inuit residents of Cambridge Bay work at, or own private businesses, and they don’t receive the kind built-in supplementary health care coverage that government workers take for granted.

Bill Davidson, the manager of Larga Edmonton, who has dealt with the Northwest Territories— and now Nunavut— for more than 30 years, confirmed that a resident of Cambridge Bay or any other Kitikmeot community who is over the age of 65 and receiving extended health care benefits is allowed to stay at Larga Edmonton when receiving medical care in the city.

The patient boarding home is also open to any resident of Cambridge Bay or any other Kitikmeot community who suffers from a serious or chronic disease, no matter what their age.

The Nunavut extended health care benefits policy says “the cost of health care should not be an economic barrier to residents of Nunavut, particularly senior citizens, residents with debilitating long- term disease conditions, and those individuals who have exhausted their third-party health care benefits.”

It also says “health and social services programs should be designed to be fair, understandable, easy to access and consistently applied across the territory.”

Websites for the two patient boarding homes note that the Kitikmeot Corp. and Nunasi Corp. are partners in the 56-bed Larga Kitikmeot, “which will provide a home-away-from-home for patients living in Nunavut” and partners in Larga Edmonton, a medical residence located in Edmonton.

This 35-bed housing facility in Edmonton is for “patients living in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, who require treatment in Edmonton,” the websites said.

The owners of the two facilities do not state whether either residence is solely reserved for land claim beneficiaries.

Casey Adlem, the manager of Kitikmeot Larga, referred an email asking for more information about who can stay at the patient boarding home in Yellowknife to Clara Evalik, Kitikmeot’s regional director for health and social services

In the Northwest Territories, where 50 per cent of the population is non-aboriginal, the territorial government is now considering the establishment of an annual health care premium for all non-aboriginal residents.

This would allow them to participate with the GNWT in an extended co-payment system for supplementary items and services not normally covered by the Non-Insured Health Benefits program.