Lashaunda Waswa, Neskantaga First Nation’s youngest band councillor at 22, is advocating for a better future for the next generation.
The remote Ojibway community in northwestern Ontario has been under a boil-water advisory for 31 years, the longest in effect in Canada. Community members also say health-care access is an ongoing challenge in the First Nation and urban centres like Thunder Bay, where people often travel for care they can’t get at home.
Neskantaga’s only nursing station flooded last year, prompting a two-month evacuation of the community’s most vulnerable members and the state of emergency.
While Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) says the building reopened in November, Waswa is among the First Nation’s leaders stressing that the aging facility and outdated medical equipment are unacceptable.
“We are worried that we’re going to lose community members over this,” Waswa said.
Waswa added that the nursing station relies on contract nurses from outside the First Nation who haven’t built trust with community members.
Neskantaga’s leaders shared multiple stories with CBC News about community members being sent home from the facility and later requiring medical evacuations.
The federal Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB) program provides coverage for medical transportation, accommodations and meals for those who must travel for appointments.
But Neskantaga’s leaders say last-minute travel arrangements made through the program mean community members are missing their appointments.
“It’s last-minute notice, maybe five minutes before the plane lands: ‘Your travel’s here,’” said Chief Gary Quisses. “It’s really impacting the system.”
The First Nation is calling for a new medical centre to replace its nursing station. It also wants the federal government to overhaul the NIHB system to reduce travel delays and provide better co-ordination for patients.
“We need the governments to step up,” Quisses said. “That’s their obligation to fix that … it’s not the First Nation’s fault why we lose appointments, why we miss flights.”
ISC says it’s working with community leaders
ISC spokesperson Jennifer Cooper provided an emailed statement to CBC News about Neskantaga’s concerns.
“Health services, including dental and X-ray, are currently available to community members through the community’s regular nursing station under the clinical direction of health professionals,” Cooper said.
Since the state of emergency has been in effect, ISC has been “supporting the delivery of medical supplies to the nursing station, co-ordinating nursing staffing and access to primary care services in the community, as well as referral to medically necessary services outside the community when needed.”
As for NIHB, Cooper said the department is working with community leaders to better understand their concerns around “access to supplies, medevac services, and patient supports, and to identify practical solutions.”
“ISC continues to work with partners to address reported gaps and improve co-ordination so that patients are better supported before, during, and after travel.”
Health care ‘should be taken care of’
Neskantaga members say they’ve been waiting too long for health-care improvements.
“It is our treaty right to always have provided services; our health care, education, our well-being should be taken care of, no matter what costs,” said Coleen Moonias, a band councillor. “It’s about a fiduciary obligation.”
Stanley Moonias is Neskantaga’s case manager for health and social services.
He has a heart condition and says he’s had an appointment pushed back 2½ months because his medical travel wasn’t arranged in time.
Last month, his great-granddaughter kept being sent home from the community’s nursing station. The 1½-year-old’s condition worsened and the family advocated for her to be flown to Thunder Bay.
“We had to wait for 18 hours to get that medevac,” Moonias said. “That’s not right.”
Band councillor Bradley Moonias remembers having to drive 17 hours from Neskantaga to Thunder Bay — using the community’s winter road to connect to the highway network — when his three children became sick a few years ago.
“They all had infections, all three of them,” he said.
Moonias said his youngest son had further complications and was supposed to stay at a hospital in Thunder Bay for a few days, but the family couldn’t afford to be in the city any longer.
Waswa said her goddaughter was also repeatedly sent home from the nursing station and ended up being diagnosed with pneumonia in Thunder Bay.
“This is happening to a lot of our children.”
Local MPP demands change
On Friday, Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa wrote a letter to federal Indigenous Services minister Mandy Gull-Masty and Health Minister Marjorie Michel about concerns with the NIHB program.
“People are suffering. People are hurting. People are not getting to their appointments because of this system that is not working, and that’s unacceptable,” Mamakwa told CBC News.
Some people have been waiting years for medical appointments, only to be left scrambling to arrange medical transportation themselves, he said.
This has a ripple effect on health-care providers and pharmacies that are left dealing with last-minute requests and cancellations, Mamakwa added.
As he waits for the ministers to respond, Neskantaga members have been shovelling the remaining snow away from the nursing station to prevent future flooding.
“When we see the nursing station being brand new, maybe even turned into a little hospital … That’s when we know that [the federal government is] actually listening,” Waswa said.
