Sanikiluaq’s ambulance arrived last fall. 10 months later, it’s never been used
Facebook post describing heart attack prompts questions about medical transport in Belcher Islands community
This ambulance arrived in Sanikiluaq in September. Ten months later, it still hasn’t been used. (Photo courtesy of Facebook)
A man in Sanikiluaq may be alive today thanks to his sister, who saw his Facebook post from close to 900 kilometres away in Kinngait and acted quickly to get him help.
It was June 15, and Johnny Manning was sitting on his couch, experiencing intense chest pain. He couldn’t get up to reach his phone. But Facebook, on his computer, was within reach.
“867-266-8965 health center, I can’t get up,” he posted, followed by, “I am having a heart attack,” about five minutes later.
Manning, who underwent heart surgery in Winnipeg following his heart attack and is now discharged from hospital, shared his story with Nunatsiaq News on July 3.
He said he could hear a lot of gunshots in the distance that night, indicating hunters in the community were announcing a successful whale harvest.
“I knew I may not get help in time, for people were rushing to shore,” he said over Facebook messenger.
His sister, Ooloosie Manning, saw the post and worked her own social media to get the attention of somebody in Sanikiluaq who could provide a ride to the health centre.
“RCMP and some local people picked me up,” Johnny said.
The whole process took about 30 minutes, he said, and he was medevaced the next day.
The incident played out in Sanikiluaq’s community Facebook group, and prompted many people in the Belcher Islands community of 1,000 people to ask why their ambulance, which was paraded through the community after its arrival in September, is still sitting unused.
Sanikiluaq’s senior administrative officer, Ron Ladd, said the challenge is that the hamlet’s bylaw officer still doesn’t have the proper class of licence to drive an ambulance.
There isn’t a person posted in Sanikiluaq who can give drivers tests. Instead, Nunavut’s Department of Economic Development and Transportation flies people in to administer them.
The most recent visit was in January or February, said Ladd.
“The bylaw officer … missed the last opportunity because he was in Iqaluit on training,” he said.
Ladd said they tried to organize a test for the bylaw officer while he was in Iqaluit, but there was difficulty getting the appropriate vehicle to do a test in.
Once it is up and running, the ambulance in Sanikiluaq won’t offer all of the life-saving services a similar vehicle can in bigger city centres. That’s because there are no paramedics in the community.
“We are providing a taxi, that’s all we are providing,” Ladd said.
Even so, a proper patient transport is a needed service with a lot of demand, said Ladd. And he would know.
Ladd served as senior administrative officer in Pangnirtung about five years ago, and brought in an ambulance to that hamlet during his tenure.
There, he drove the ambulance himself. He estimated at one point he was called in to transport patients 28 times in 30 days, and calls could come in at any hour of the day or night.
The Department of Economic Development and Transportation did not respond by press time with a date for when an instructor will fly into Sanikiluaq.
Ladd said he isn’t sure either, but said he is confident it will be soon.
If memory serves me right, many communities in Nunavut are unable to transport patients using the ambulance in their community if there is not licensed medical personal on board with the patient. This is due to insurance and liability issues. Having a license to drive an ambulance doesn’t mean it can be used to shuttle patients around town. If the bylaw officer in Sanikiluaq gets his/her license and starts to transport patients without proper medical training, the Hamlet is setting itself up for a lawsuit.
The Kugluktuk coroner’s inquest just in may made a recommendation that:
“The hamlet and Government of Nunavut will ensure the ambulance is adequately staffed and equipped.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/kugluktuk-inquest-recommendations-1.6445162
I am sure this is the same for Sanikiluaq. Just having the proper driver licence is not enough to provide this kind of transport.
An ambulance is made for patients and paramedics. No paramedics in most of these towns up here, so at the end of the day, an SUV truck would serve the same purpose.
Everyone wants fire trucks and ambulances, but in reality they just collect dust and then maybe they get driven around a few minutes for a Nunavut Day parade
Just another example of a very poorly-thought-out plan by the GN, designed for optics, not for the people’s welfare.
Most of the ambulances have been donated by southern cities when they have replaced their fleets. All hamlets had to do was sat yes regardless if they had the resources to operate them
No one knows who runs this, you can ask hamlet of Sanikiluaq and they will tell you other people runs it, but if you ask those who were asked by hamlet they will tell
You hamlet of Sanikiluaq runs it.
Literally no one knows.
Only Iqaluit,Rankin,Cambridge Bay are allowed this service,the rest of Nunavut are not allowed.Because the regional centres have the only qualified people,same old storey,we are not allowed the dignity,we have to go in taxis or mini vans ,because the big bosses in Iqaluit say so.
Yeah, no. Rankin Inlet, Iqaluit, and Cambridge Bay have it because the fire departments (and municipalities) took it upon themselves to offer the service and contracted with the GN to provide it. There is literally nothing preventing any other community to likewise have one except in being able to provide (a) an appropriate vehicle, (b) a place to keep the vehicle, (c) maintaining the vehicle, and (d) people willing to be available 24 hours to respond with the vehicle. It doesn’t even have to be a fire department; it’s just common to do so because there’s often an overlap in required skills.
Iqaluit relies on the paid fire department. Cambridge Bay relies purely on volunteers.
Government of Nunavut is The most incompetent government in the history of Canada. Nunavut was better off as Northwest Territories. We lost everything when Government of Nunavut was created.
The only claim that Nunavut can stake is that after 20 years, we are the world’s northernmost banana republic. And sadly, things are only getting worse.
I think nunavik , out ranks you by a yard.
So, let me get this straight:
-Gravel roads for an ambulance built for asphalt
-Ambulance that’s sat unused, and not maintained, and is likely a death trap like every other GN vehicle
-No paramedic on board to stabilize or even put a stretcher under a patient
-No driver
GN isn’t hiring paramedics, and after the ongoing debacle of the GN all but driving half the nurses out of the territory, I doubt many would come up.
What you have purchased is one very expensive paperweight.
buy it for a dollar and turn it into a poutine truck
What kind of motivation is there in some communities? What kind of drivers are there, that someone can’t first of all learn to drive an ambulance, and take the training that’s required? Get a full license and be qualified. This is another peep into people doing nothing to make a better community. Local people have such opportunities, but no incentive. What will happen, someone from the south will get a job driving the ambulance. It’s the same old story. Don’t blame it on the government. Blame it on reality of the character of too many people.
I live in Sanikiluaq, for me I think it was a dumb move to waste and order a vehicle that will just sit.
Hamlet of Sanikiluaq should’ve let people get certified first before they even ordered this.
Everything is unorganized, no one even knows who runs it.
People were happy when this arrived from sealift only to get disappointed that it will never run.
Not far beneath this glittering surface spectacle lies a larger, more important and disconcerting reality. Focus in on that immovable force we repeatedly describe as ‘lack of capacity’ or ‘training’ and see manifest the structural and existential impossibility of most of Nunavut’s tiny communities.
GN has all the money
GN has all the authority.
GN makes all the rules.
Communities have all the responsibility.
It’s called federalism.
For most of the people who commented on this post, the vehicle was donated, not bought. Read the comments above yours before you make uneducated comments.
Why does Nunatsiaq news omit important details like this from damn near every story it writes? Every time!
And who paid the shipping? Did whatever town donated it wave their arms like an anime character, shout “OHBAMEIRU, SHINDAYNU” and it simply appeared in Sanni?
It requires class 3 drivers license and first responders training. We have first responders on fire fighters team. Works well, since they are on call for call. We also provide portable radio for first responders,firefighters and nurses on call. Keep it parked until for use. Take care. Proud of it.
Its actually class 4 to drive an ambulance. Class 3 for most fire trucks. Technically the driver does not need to be a first responder. However anyone interacting with a patient should be a first responder. This would be anyone moving or carrying on a stretcher. For the longest time the GN would not even let nurses enter private residences or go in a Hamlet operated Ambulance due to “insurance” These ambulances should be operated and staff by the Health Centre (Hire or train first responders). Hamlets have a hard enough time dealing with fire departments how do we expect them to run ambulance service as well.
Ambulance is a money machine.
.
Iqaluit charges $900.00 for a ride in its ambulance.
The federal government pays for that expensive taxi ride if you are an Inuk.
If you are not an Inuk, Iqualuit sends you a bill. You might be able to get full or partial reimbursement from your insurance.
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Mayor Bell, please tell us how much Iqaluit gets each year in abmulance revenue? Other communities want to know what they are missing out on.
In the 2021 unaudited figures, Iqaluit collected $2,396,000 in ambulance fees. Which seems like a lot, sure. Now start subtracting: to operate the fire department required $3.7 million a year, which means that the city needed to provide an additional $1.3 million to cover all the costs, even with the amount the ambulance service brought in.
While other communities might not have much of an expense as the Iqaluit FD does to operate, they also have significantly fewer calls. Cambridge Bay has perhaps 150 ambulance calls a year. Even at Iqaluit’s much higher price (which they aren’t getting), that would only be $195,000 a year, which is not a lot when you calculate the costs of building and it’s maintenance, power and heating (the ambulance must be in a heated garage so it can be prepared to go immediately), vehicle maintenance, fuel, equipment, and if the people actually working the vehicle are getting any money either. All of a sudden what seems to be a lot of money isn’t. And if you’re willing to pay for a full-time paramedic or EMT (and you’d need at least 2, and that’s assuming neither of them took any time off and worked 12 hour shifts so 1 was always in the ambulance with a lesser-trained assistant), well, you’re absolutely not making any money and are in fact losing it.
So running an ambulance service is not a magical money source as you seem to believe it is.
That’s what the city collect taxes for… to pay for fire protection services.. so… where’s the ambulatory fees going towards ???
Pulled right from the City of Iqaluit’s web site:
“The City of Iqaluit collects property tax to generate revenues that are used for public purposes such as the delivery of municipal programs and services. Individuals who own or occupy property are obliged to pay property tax in accordance with the law. It is compulsorily and enforceable by law.
The property tax that you pay goes toward services provided by the City of Iqaluit, such as:
* Fire protection
* Garbage pickup
* Road maintenance
* Protective services
* Recreation
* General municipal services.”
If the ambulance fees did not go toward the fire department, you’d need more money from taxes to pay for it.
Hi Math,
1. The purpose of the ambulance service is to transport people to hospital. It does not (officially) exist to subsidize the fire department. Yet you seem to be claiming that the ambulances coverabout 70% of the cost of running Iqaluit’s fire department. Sounds like a money machine to me.
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2. Perhaps an investigation is needed into why it costs $3.7 million a year to run the Iqaluit fire department.
Instead of ambulance there should be a “community patients transport van” , just taking sick people to health center. The ATVs are common transports and require helmets (which are never used) under federal law. Wonder how hamlet supersede the federal law. This is just local and territorial bureaucracy.