Money for John Amagoalik’s care running out, family says
Nunavut’s Health Department said funding privately arranged at-home care outside its ‘authority’
John Amagoalik’s wife Evie Amagoalik, left, and daughter Lily Amagoalik picked him up at Iqaluit’s airport on June 10. He flew home after living at Embassy West Senior Living in Ottawa for 16 months. (Photo by Mosha Folger)
Friends and family of John Amagoalik say they’re desperately seeking funds to cover his at-home medical care in Iqaluit after the Government of Nunavut informed them it would only cover a small portion of costs.
The Health Department told Nunatsiaq News it can’t cover the total cost of his care, like housing or privately arranged personal care workers, because these costs fall outside of its “authority.”
“Nunavut has a publicly funded health-care system, with services provided fairly and equitably based on assessed need, eligibility and available services,” spokesperson Charmaine Deogracias wrote in an email.
“Individuals are assessed according to their level of care needs and offered appropriate services, which can range from supports in the home to 24-hour care in a health care facility.”
John Amagoalik’s wife Evie Amagoalik says her husband needs around-the-clock care and that it’s only fair the territory at least covers the costs of medical professionals the family has hired to take care of him.
“The government should pay for the helpers that come by every day,” she said in an interview. “It’s the government’s responsibility to do that, even after the patient has gone home.”
John Amagoalik returned to Nunavut, the territory he helped create, in June after spending 16 months at Embassy West long-term care centre in Ottawa. Family and friends had raised the money required to set him up with at-home care but at the time said they only had enough to temporarily cover costs and were hopeful the Department of Health would provide longer-term assistance.
Revered by many as the “Father of Nunavut,” John Amagoalik served as the executive director of the Nunavut Land Claims Project starting in 1974. After 1993, he led the land-claims settlement process with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., following the ratification of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act. From 1999 onward, he chaired the Nunavut Implementation Commission, the 10-member organization that outlined what eventually became Nunavut’s government.
“He along with others worked for over 25 years to create this territory, so we think it’s unconscionable that he be treated this way in his last days,” said Mark Stiles, a close friend of Amagoalik’s.
Stiles said he believes keeping John Amagoalik in territory is cheaper for the government than sending him back to Embassy West. He estimates, based on publicly available figures, that the Department of Health spent around $32,000 per month for John Amagoalik’s care at Embassy West. His care and housing in Iqaluit costs $16,000 per month, Stiles said.
He said he met with Nunavut’s Health Department on two occasions — in July and August — to ask for help. He said he was told by Heather Hair, the assistant deputy minister of health, that her department could only provide funding for a maximum of 2.5 hours of at-home care per week.
“Privately contracted care services and independent housing arrangements remain separate from department-funded home care services. Consequently, they cannot be provided or funded through the department’s Home Care Program,” Hair wrote in a letter addressed to Stiles and others advocating on behalf of the family.
“The department is not responsible for housing and is unable to transfer funds allocated to existing elder facility contracts to pay for private housing for individuals.”
But Stiles said his friend has been moved around enough in his lifetime.
At five-years-old, he and his family were moved against their will from their home along Hudson Bay to Resolute Bay in the High Arctic. In his youth, he was sent to Edmonton after contracting tuberculosis before being forced to attend another residential school in Manitoba.
“He’s been through adversities time and time again, he doesn’t need another kick in the teeth,” Stiles said.
Anne Crawford, another close friend of the family, said John Amagoalik has been doing fairly well since getting back to Iqaluit, and that she’d like him to be able to stay.
“I was surprised that they resorted so quickly to bureaucratic responses, I had expected there would be more consideration,” she said about the Health Department.
She said right now his care is running on the “goodwill” of friends and family, something they won’t be able to afford much longer without external support.
Nunatsiaq News has reached out to NTI, which owns the subsidized housing where Amagoalik currently lives, for comment, but has yet to hear back.
This man helped create our territory and establish land rights yet this is how he is treated? We are a joke, fund this his care and living so he can live out his life with dignity. This goes for so many too.
we will all be in the same boat soon.
we are appreciative of what he fought for. but honestly, his salary over the years was much higher than 90% of the people he helped.
This comment ignores the realities of life before 1999. I am not sure the writer has any knowledge of how things were in those days.
Canada funded TFN land claims negotiations through loans to the Inuit organizations. Inuit organizations had nothing. All negotiators salaries were assessed and parsed by Canada, and the pay was most certainly not rich. Meanwhile, the federal and GNWT negotiators had overtime pay and public service pensions.
The indigenous funding was never certain from year to year. There was no funding and no certainty to set up the kind of pension that non-native negotiators were given.
There were no banks in communities to even buy an RRSP.
You cannot assume that today’s coonditions exited then.
The GN has egg on its face after the family was able to get this guy home and arranged care. The GN was proven by a family that it can be done despite they saying it cannot. Clearly it was a we “will not” vs. we “cannot”.
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Now the family is likely looking to prove it is more economical than the inflated costs Embassy West and other institutions are milking the GN for. Of course, this requires the GN to actually deal with people directly in-Territory instead of buying them a ticket and throwing them at a contractor, which is bad news for officials who are used to underperforming under the radar and blaming contractors for everything.
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The way this all is playing out seems awfully strategic so good on the people who are pushing for better elder care, because the Minister and the Department look completely foolish here: We’ll pay $X for him to be in Ottawa at a private institution but we won’t pay the same $X for him to be in Nunavut. NTI really should play a role in supporting advocacy here for elders .
It’s not the same $x to be in Iqaluit as in Embassy West. It’s 1/2$x. So the GN’s stance makes even less sense.
Hey Kenn, I suspect you are right here. The GN would have already said it costs too much in-territory vs the south if that was the case. They seem to be arguing some random policy is the issue.
If it costs 50% of the price to keep him in Iqaluit, where he is happy and he wants to be, why does the GN want him back at Embassy for double the cost?
And if it costs 50% for John why aren’t we exploring this option for other elders?
I am constantly puzzled by what the GN does and does not do, but this one really takes the cake.
Okay, let’s say the GN does that.
Where does it get the bodies to fill those positions? The professionals to able to provide 24 hour round-the-clock service as needed? Health centres across the territory are chronically understaffed as it is. So where are all these additional trained caregivers going to come from?
Looking at it from strictly a cost standpoint for a single individual is very misleading, and someone like Anne Crawford is smart enough to know that.
Thank you Observer for the compliment, I do spend a fair bit of time thinking and working on these issues.
I truly believe that most of our elder care needs can be met in community.
We do need people will skills and commitment, but we don’t need to overstate the levels of skill in most cases. I went to court for a family where the GN wanted to send a woman out of Nunavut to Calgary (forever) because they claimed that they couldn’t find someone to assist her with her toilet. Clearly this is a skill that many in Nunavut have – most of us have changed diapers and done the necessary clean-up.
The current GN model is contracting for housing and personal care through Embassy West – a private provider in Ontario. Embassy does not have a monopoly. There is no logical reason why a contract could not be put in place for housing and personal care through a private provider in Nunavut. As a matter of fact the Nunavut Agreement Articles 23 and 24 would suggest that this is the GNs obligation.
Where this is possible for John – or any other elder – the GN should be making all efforts to support and sustain that arrangement. The commentator Get In Line is right to be angry. This approach to care should be available across Nunavut. These contract funds should be supporting elders to stay here, with the economic and personal value of Nunavut dollars and employment contributing to the economies of many Nunavut communities.
Let us hope that change is coming and we begin to see private or community care options for as many elders as we can safely return to home. That transition would truly live up to the often-repeated GN commitment to prioritize our elders.
Just to be clear, I’m not insisting on private providers. I’d be even happier if the GN hired a fleet of casual or term employees to provide these services on a public model (because the need varies from time to time and place to place) taking on the burdens of management and payroll. Or as a crown agency. Or any delivery method.
I have used the “private” model because that is what the GN has used in Rankin and at Embassy in Ottawa.
I have tremendous respect and sympathy for John Amagoalik, and he deserves proper care. But this feels like a public pressure campaign to have the GN fund a privately arranged care model that could set an unsustainable precedent.
If the GN funds a $16,000-a-month private arrangement here, will the same option be available to every Nunavummiut with similar care needs? If not, how is that fair? If so, is it sustainable?
Nunatsiaq should investigate the numbers more closely. Who is currently providing the health care? What qualifications do they have? What exactly is included in the $16,000? How much is NTI subsidizing the house it owns?
This is not about whether John deserves care. He does along with all Nunavut elders. It is about whether the proposed arrangement is transparent, equitable and sustainable for Nunavut.
The GN already employs a private care model in Ontario and MB, maybe QC I don’t know. They pay private companies to provide private care via public funds. Is there any material difference?
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The GN wants the easy option. Pay $X and don’t worry about it. The alternative is to pay and be responsible for hiring and organizing in-territory, or contracting in-territory services and arranging facilities etc in some instances.
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Clearly the second option is a lot of admin and work for the GN. Clearly the GN doesn’t want is the care (or lack of care – I don’t have an opinion as I don’t know anyone in this system) on their doorstep, because elders fly under the radar when they are thousands of KM away.
Exactly. My thoughts too; expressed succinctly.
Well John should get in line, just like the rest of us that have family down in Ottawa! Sucks but that all we have as care for these conditions, loved ones away from home, that’s the reality all the rest of us have been faces.
It’s time to demand better. I appreciate that the GN is operating under challenging HR and resource constraints, but we can do better on this one! Nunavut needs local elder care and needs the local employment opportunities involved in at home care. Let’s solve this one instead of taking the current approach, which is easier now but is unsustainable and does not contribute to long term development of families, communities, and the economy.
NTI should provide John with an $8,000 per month pension for the work he did for it.
The GN should give John a consulting contract, with an $8,000 per month retainer.
There’s always someone who veers the conservation into absurdity
Canadians, all of us are very lucky to have what we do. We aren’t just lucky, we work and continue to work and pay in to a system that works for everyone equally. The key to the sustainment of the model is share equally.
The department says privately arranged care and housing are outside its authority. But the GN’s whole southern elder care model is privately arranged care and housing. Embassy West is a private company. The contracted beds in Rankin are private. The GN clearly has the authority to buy these services from a private provider, it just refuses to buy them in Nunavut.
That position runs against the Nunavut Agreement in at least three places. Article 24 requires government to give Inuit firms reasonable opportunities to compete for government contracts. If elder care contracts only ever go south, no Nunavut firm can ever compete for them. Article 23 commits government to a representative Inuit workforce, and every care job sent to Ottawa is a job an Inuk in Nunavut never gets. Article 32 gives Inuit the right to participate in designing social programs and services, including how they are delivered. A family designed a delivery model that works, in the community, at half the price the GN was paying in Ottawa, and the department’s response is that it doesn’t fit the program. Article 32 exists precisely so the program has to fit us, not the other way around.
This isn’t about one man getting special treatment. It’s about whether contract dollars the GN is already spending on elder care get spent in a way the Agreement requires.
There is an expression in English that describes a situation in which things happen exactly opposite to the way they should. This clearly is one of those situations. This is a case of the tail [the bureaucrats] wagging the dog [the Minister].
I know that John Amagoalik appealed directly to the Minister of Health for assistance. But all we read in the coverage of this case are responses from bureaucrats – the hired help.
Nunavut’s elected ministers do not understand their roles, or at least the Minister of Health doesn’t. Yes, bureaucrats are expected to consult the rule book and respond according to the policy that is in place for any given situation. Sometimes, though, the policies are stupid and fly in the face of common sense That’s when a minister should intervene and override the bureaucrats and make a common-sense decision that may deviate from the written policy. That’s what should happen in this case.
When does the legislature sit next? All ordinary MLAs should band together to hold the government to account for this shabby treatment of a man who devoted his life to the creation of Nunavut and the betterment of living conditions for Inuit.
And where is NTI in this issue? Non-responsive, according to the article. While they wallow in millions of dollars of investments, can they not spare a little for the support of the man instrumental in negotiating the agreement from which they benefit?
In other governments in Canada and elsewhere, ministers make decisions, sometimes controversial, sometimes unpopular, but usually necessary. In Nunavut, ministers cower behind their hired help, which simply reads chapter and verse from a policy manual.
This is not what Inuit and others expected when they supported the creation of Nunavut and a government responsive to its people’s needs.
Hold the elected officials to account. Demand that they earn their generous salaries by making a common-sense decision, bending the rule book, and supporting John Amagoalik.
John is a unique individual, the father of Nunavut in the view of most of the public. Bending the rule book to support him in this one-off situation will not set a precedent – it will show compassion and kindness; it will exemplify the principles of Inuit Qaujimatuqangit.
Kenn and Anne, I agree that John deserves dignity and proper care. But if the argument is that special consideration is warranted because of his contribution to creating Nunavut, then I think NTI needs to be much more central to this conversation.
John was an important leader, but he did not negotiate the Nunavut Agreement alone. People such as Paul Quassa, James Eetoolook, Tagak Curley and many other Inuit leaders and negotiators devoted years of their lives to this work. NTI itself grew out of that effort and is the institution entrusted with protecting and advancing the benefits of the Agreement.
If we believe those Inuit leaders deserve special recognition and support as they age, perhaps NTI should develop something for all surviving Agreement negotiators and collaborators of Nunavut rather than expecting the GN to create a one-off exception for one individual.
More broadly, this seems like an opportunity for NTI and the GN to work together on an Inuit elder-care model that keeps more elders at home and in Nunavut. I would much rather see that collaboration , including NTI putting its own resources on the table , than the relationship continually defaulting to litigation and public battles over what the GN should be doing.
John deserves care. So do the other Inuit who built Nunavut, and so does every elder with comparable needs. The lasting solution should be bigger than one person.
Yes you are entirely right. The lasting solution should be bigger. And the credit for foundational work for Nunavut should be more widely acknowledged.
At the same time …. John is in front of us today and so his case is put forward most urgently. Let it not be shuffled off into a policy review of a report of a survey of an analysis of a policy paper of a regulatory submission. His case needs action now.
His solutions may lead the way for others.
The GN is sure embarrassing how it operates, too many smart people working there that always have to make things overly complicated, and talk more about how complicated it is.
Same old same old doesn’t matter who the new guy is coming in to work for a few short years at the GN,
It’s sad how our territorial government works or lack there of, with a 3 Billion annual budget for less than 40 thousand people they sure are dysfunctional and just can’t seem to get anything meaningful done. With devolution coming I’m worried it’s only going to get worse, the transient government workforce is really not working, but it’s set up that way, the Arctic college is outdated, the schools will not even hire teachers who graduate from there and not a peep from our MLAs about that, the one trade school we have not one graduate from there has been hired, there are so many barriers put up for local hires, no housing, kept on casual for years and so on, what is our government doing to address all these serious issues at our government? We need true leadership that will get a government review started and work to make changes in our government, with such a huge annual budget where majority of the funds do not stay in Nunavut and flow just as fast south, things need to change. The former housing President did such a terrible job with housing 3000 and yet he gets promoted deputy minister to another department, who does that make any sense? Now we can’t even look after our elders, especially John who help create Nunavut where all these GN employees enjoy making a very nice living staying in their nice furnished units. You just have to shake your head and be embarrassed for our Government.
Every single Elder that goes to Embassy West is just as important as John A. I hope what has happened to him will lead the way for others to be cared for in their communities.
I agree with Ken Harper.
We have too many Ministers who don’t know their authority in the job of a “Minister” senior staff still leading this Government.
GN officially came into existence in 1999. JOHN A was one of the Inuit leaders that made it happen, We need to remind GN officials about this reality.
If the GN provides extra funding for John. Then all users should be entitled to the same. Funding as John.
It’s always the same comment. The GN is being ripped off by one group or another.
Please please look at who funds practically the entire funding. For the inept govern of Nunavut. The federal government. So who is being ripped off? Maybe tax payers in the south.
Interesting to read some of the comments on this. I commend people like Ken Harper and Anne Crawford for advocating for John Amagoalik as individuals while I sit here like a coward posting anonymously. Yet, I still have an issue.
John spent much of his life helping create Nunavut. He believed in public government, and public government necessarily means some measure of equality. Government cannot simply provide one person with a level of privately arranged care that isn’t available to other Nunavut elders, no matter how deserving that person may be.
But if people believe John deserves something more, there are other options.
Some of those advocating for him have done very very well in Nunavut and could choose to help personally. NTI, an organization John was instrumental in building, could also step forward. Rather than simply saying the money is running out and once again demanding that government solve everything even though we all deem the GN incompetent, maybe it’s time for others to look in the mirror and give back.
If Ken Harper believes this strongly, perhaps he could help make it happen through his immense personal wealth. If NTI believes it, perhaps NTI could help make it happen instead of funding private schools and hockey schools for a select few. Use those billions you sit on.
John helped build the institutions and opportunities that came with Nunavut. Surely those who benefited from them can do more than criticize government and ask taxpayers everywhere else to foot the bill.
You referred in your post to Kenn Harper’s “immense personal wealth.” This warrants a correction. You (whoever you are, hiding in anonymity) have not the slightest idea whether I have “immense personal wealth” or whether I am living near the poverty line. Nor will you ever know. Suffice it to say that I have no government or corporate or other pension (except CPP) and so I saved and invested for my retirement. You have no idea whether my investments have performed well or poorly.
But since you also suggested that those of us advocating for John Amagoalik should contribute personally to this cause, allow me to state that I did contribute generously to the fund which raised money for his initial care and his return to Iqaluit.
You’re welcome.
Read my lips. No two tier health system.
Kenn Harper is advocating that we create a two-tiered health system in Nunavut. One for former politicians and people they deem worthy and one for the rest of the folks.
I believe in equality and if we divide people now, Nunavut will suffer and Elders from common families will end up worse off so that we can fund higher levels of care for some who have enough clout to conjure up a public pressure campaign.
Nothing at all against John A. In fact, I believe he is a great man, but I also believe be would agree and want equality for the same reasons he pushed for a public govt. I think he actually feared the same people who are now virtue signaling on his behalf and at times was one of the best antidotes to their tactics by offering simple truths and accepting reality.
Show me the money! You sent him here and now you need to fund his care. Open up that wallet Ken.
Another commenter cowering behind a pseudonym, and making assumptions about matters of which he (or she) knows nothing.
John, his family, and others who were sent to Grise Fiord and Resolute Bay were forcibly sent to be the flagpoles for Canada when the were relocated in the early 1950s. The relocatees continue to be the justification for the ownership of Canada’s arctic and its waters.
Yet, due to low demand and high costs for the company, the residents of Grise and Resolute have to pay at least $10,000 just to go to Iqaluit!
GN pays for four jurisdictions to provide medical services to the residents of Nunavut; maybe it would be more economical to have a medical services provided by a single jurisdiction?
There’s so much precipitation in the GN that it’s very inefficient! Our communities are very expensive, it is very hard to find good paying jobs, and majority of the job market in the Territory is unsustainable. We are slaves in our own homes, and we are going to have even more responsibilities as a result of the devolution being signed.
The Inuit need to rise up again like they did when they fought really hard to create our beautiful territory, our land; Nunavut!
I am not Inuk and I have found it heat breaking for years that Inuit elders are taken away from their environment and culture at the end of their life. It hurts the soul. It should be avoided for any elder for whom this can be avoided. I do worry that the rich will get special treatment because they have the clout but as some say hopefully it can set a positive precedent. And yes, why don’t ministers put their feet down on their bureaucracy in such situations? Ministers do that for good and bad decisions, not just for good ones. This would be a good one. And bureaucracies sometimes do have good people who can recommend sensible decisions that are outside the box, sometimes they are heard and sometimes not.