Dene leaders seek changes to medical travel, health and housing

Some delegates at the Dene National Assembly want the NWT government to “get out of housing.” There were also calls for the Dene Nation to take over medical travel.

“We need to take over this medical travel for ourselves,” Yellowknives Dene First Nation Elder Bobby Drygeese said on Wednesday, the assembly’s second day. The Kátł’odeeche First Nation is hosting this week’s gathering of Dene leaders.

“We got to make sure that people are taken care of,” said Drygeese, “because things need to get done and we just need to start doing things ourselves.”

Chiefs and Elders shared their experiences with medical travel or those of their families and community members. Many advocated for more support in the NWT’s regions to navigate medical travel, streamline tasks like booking appointments or seeking information, and improve how and when escorts are allowed to travel with patients.

“I can imagine there’s a lot of people out there who just don’t even bother with going through with the medical travel because it’s such a headache,” said West Point First Nation Chief Devon Felker.

Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation Chief Kele Antoine echoed Felker’s statement, saying when Elders are given a serious diagnosis or are too stressed, they experience stress-induced language regression and have trouble understanding the limited information provided to them.

“People are having a real hard time navigating that and some of them are not going to these appointments because of fear of that,” said Antoine.

Leanne Goose, a Dene Nation staff member, presented on medical travel and the challenges in acquiring escorts, particularly for Elders, describing it as “inconsistent.”

Goose said the GNWT should allow escorts for Elders based on their age alone.

Yellowknives Dene First Nation member Jennifer Drygeese said escorts should also be automatically allowed for cancer patients. She called on the Dene Nation to advocate for Indigenous people dealing with medical travel and told those in attendance to make a complaint when “you’re not being cared for” by the Department of Health and Social Services and hold the GNWT and federal government accountable.

Alongside Bobby Drygeese, Salt River First Nation Chief Toni Heron asked the Dene Nation to take over medical travel, though she said ultimate responsibility for the medical travel of Indigenous people lies with the federal government, which manages programs like Non-Insured Health Benefits.

“Our health should be looked after, and it’s not,” said Heron.

Delegates spoke to other changes they want to see in the health system.

Jean Marie River First Nation Chief Melanie Norwegian-Menacho said more aftercare supports are needed for people who seek treatment out of the territory.

“Our children of tomorrow will fall because addictions will be on the rise and crime is on the rise already,” said Norwegian-Menacho.

Wilbert Cook, a Dene Nation staff member, said major projects will bring money with them, but that also means “where there’s a lot of money, there’s going to be drugs, higher addiction rates.”

Jennifer Drygeese said the Yellowknives Dene First Nation wants its own health clinic and wants to expand mental health and addictions services. She said she has also been advocating for an Indigenous health department.

In particular, she said, money for health services should go directly to Indigenous governments without passing through the GNWT first.

Roy Erasmus, a founder of the Endacho Healing Society, said he is working to set up a trauma healing centre, citing trauma as the root cause of addictions. He said he wants to open the centre in two years. In June, Erasmus asked MLAs for stable operational funding.

Housing NWT ‘should be dissolved’

The final topic of discussion on Wednesday was housing in Denendeh. Yellowknives Dene First Nation member Katłįà Lafferty said Indigenous governments should provide housing rather than the GNWT.

Housing NWT “should be dissolved eventually,” said Lafferty. “The goal would be to dissolve it completely, and us to take over our own sovereign homes and have our land back.”

Lafferty proposed a resolution calling on Housing NWT to stop taking the wages of tenants, stop making people pay arrears and give funding directly to Indigenous governments to deliver their own housing, among other things.

Phil Moon Son, the Dene Nation’s chief executive officer, said he has been working on improvements to the organization’s governance structure so when another billion-dollar funding program emerges – like Build Canada Homes – it will be ready to support an application on behalf of Dene nations.

Cook said the Dene Nation tried to do this for the Build Canada Homes program, but communities and regions decided to submit individual applications instead.

Cook also said the Dene Nation approached the GNWT to work together in addressing housing issues, but the organization was turned down.

In his closing remarks, Dene National Chief George Mackenzie said the GNWT “should get out of housing” and told chiefs heading to Ottawa for a coming NWT Council of Leaders meeting to bring that message with them.