THUNDER BAY – Ovide Mercredi says the gap in health care in Canada’s Indigenous communities must be closed.
For once, he’s confident he’ll see it happen in his lifetime.
Mercredi, the former Assembly of First Nations chief who’s been tasked by Nishnawbe Aski Nation to lead the health transformation charge, on Wednesday said far too many of Canada’s Indigenous people lack access to basic health-care services taken for granted by most of the country’s residents.
It’s having an impact on the lives of Indigenous people from coast to coast, particularly in remote Northern Ontario, where people in need of health care must be flown to larger centres – and that doesn’t begin to address the lack of mental-health and addictions care needed in many First Nation communities.
Speaking to staff and students at both the Lakehead and Sudbury campuses of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Mercredi said self-determination and self-governance are also keys to future success, along with the willingness of the federal and provincial governments to recognize the importance of transforming delivery of services and work with Indigenous leaders to make it happen in a way that works.
“The First Nations cannot do this on our own, but we cannot carry on with the status quo,” Mercredi said in his speech, echoing the state of crisis leaders called the health system when the transformation team was announced this past November.
First and foremost are the resources.
The federal government on Tuesday set aside $235 million in its latest budget to help cover the initial costs.
That’s good news, Mercredi said.
But it has taken far too long, he added.
“That’s been our frustration and why we get upset with the other governments and the inaction that we see in our communities,” Mercredi said. “But they’re there now and I’m confident that the commitments that were made by the federal government and the Ontario government are genuine. It’s up to us to make sure it works.
“We have to take leadership ourselves as First Nations people and keep them honest, as I say, keep the fire to them so they don’t backtrack. But I’m operating under the assumption that the good will is there and the financial considerations will follow.”
It’s all about giving Indigenous people more of a say in health care in their communities.
“We’re looking at having more doctors, more Indigenous doctors, more non-Indigenous doctors going up north. We’ll be looking at working with First Nations in the Cree communities in establishing a new hospital that was just announced by the federal government,” Mercredi said.
“And we’ll be looking at how western medicine works together with traditional medicine as a way of healing people’s ailments and illnesses. We’ll also be focusing on mental health and preventative health measures so the reliance on the medical system declines as opposed to increasing over the next few decades.”
Others on the health transformation committee include NAN elder Helen Cromarty, physicians Doris Mitchell and Michale Kirlew, Thunder Bay nurse practitioner Mae Katt and Alika Lafontaine, the past president of the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada.
