TORONTO Dr. Nadine Caron of Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation is a woman of firsts. She was the first female First Nations student to graduate from the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine. She then became the first female First Nations general surgeon in Canada, advocating for rural, northern and Indigenous populations in the country. It is a responsibility she feels deeply. “It’s about choice, it’s about equity, it’s about addressing the fact that it s time we re at the table,” Caron told CTV News. “The disparities are getting bigger…[but] more and more people in places of power and in positions where they can implement change are starting to actually own up to it.”
A proposed new building for the healing facility was denied because it would be built on farmland.
Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria and the author of
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. SHARES Premier John Horgan and Agriculture Minister Lana Popham both say they support the proposed new First Nations healing centre after the province’s land commission rejected its construction.
Photo via the BC Government.
The B.C. government is working with Carrier Sekani Family Services to find a path forward for a proposed treatment and healing facility for people with substance use issues after a decision by the Agricultural Land Commission set back the project.
Horgan responded that making sure communities have treatment capacity is a top priority, and the government wants to see the facility built. “I’m not aware the project has been stopped,” he said. “I am aware it has not yet begun.”
In a March 4 letter to three cabinet ministers Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Minister Murray Rankin; Agriculture, Food and Fisheries Minister Lana Popham; and Mental Health and Addictions Minister Sheila Malcolmson Cheslatta Carrier Chief Corrina Leween criticized the Agricultural Land Commission’s decision to reject plans to build the treatment centre and asked for urgent action.
“The decision fails to uphold your government’s commitments to address the opioid crisis on an urgent basis, to close the systemic gaps in medical and health services for First Nations people in the north, to implement the [Truth and Reconciliation Commission] Calls to Action, and to honour the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,”
As of Saturday, Northern Health had administered 9,789 doses of vaccine to a population of about 288,000, which works out to a rate of about 34 per 1,000 people or 3.4 per cent of the total population. Every other health region in the province has vaccinated five per cent or more of its population. “I’m just totally disappointed, somebody’s dropping the ball,” said the 72-year-old Duncan. “Not even 10,000 people in northern B.C. have received their first shot, and if you’re in Vancouver Island 47,000 people have had their first shots. I know there is a population difference but…” The province had received 261,912 first doses by Saturday, which works out to 5.3 per cent of the entire population, based on Duncan’s population estimate of 4.93 million, which is lower than the Statistics Canada estimate of 5.148 million in 2020.
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