What would help health care in the N.W.T.’s Dehcho? Residents say it’s about relationships

Dehcho Grand Chief Herb Norwegian said he regularly hears stories about residents going to health facilities only to be given Tylenol and sent home. Too often, he said, the first question staff ask is whether patients are drunk. 

A recent set of recommendations on improving health care in the N.W.T.’s Dehcho region focuses on staffing and equipment but what matters most, some residents say, is having workers residents trust. 

“That rapport, that way they deal with people, they’ve got to improve that,” Norwegian said.

The recommendations follow a months-long investigation into the deaths in early 2025 of three Dehcho residents: Wesley Marcellais, 44, Hilary Norwegian, 34, and Avery Burke, 6.  Families of the deceased, along with some N.W.T. politicians, said the deaths were preventable and exemplify inequities in the territory’s health care system.  

Norwegian said the priority should be on recruiting and creating an environment where medical staff want to stay in communities, though he recognized that doing so is complicated.

“The onus is on us, to see where we can fix the problem,” he said.

MLAs passed a motion in March 2025 calling on the territory’s health minister to appoint an investigator to look into the deaths.

Health Minister Lesa Semmler tabled the investigator’s recommendations in June but the Department of Health and Social Services (HSS) said the full report and findings are confidential. Semmler declined an interview with CBC News, saying her department is still reviewing the findings.

The 18 recommendations include clarifying staff roles in health care, ensuring proper staffing and supplying proper medical equipment at all health facilities.

Norwegian said that all of that is important but trust is what makes the biggest impact.

In Fort Providence, Elder Joachim Bonnetrouge said care in the community is good and it is because they have had the same workers in the community for the last decade. 

“If you have longer-term nurses that are committed to the community and they have committed to the people there is a certain amount of confidence,” he said.

Norwegian said there just aren’t enough doctors and nurses for everyone that needs treatment. He recognized there is a national shortage of doctors and it is a struggle to bring professionals to the North. 

One idea is to encourage young people in the Dehcho to train to become doctors, nurses and psychologists. But there are only so many resources available to make that happen.

“It’s all money and time,” he said. 

For communities on the road system, he said it is often best to drive to Yellowknife for care, even when it is hundreds of kilometres away. But that is not possible for communities in the region that rely on medevacs. 

His advice is to live as healthy a life as possible and avoid the need for care altogether.

“Live that bush life if you can,” Norwegian said. “Try to breathe as much fresh air as possible and, you know, eat good. I mean that that’s probably the best advice that I can give.”

Jason Sutherland, a professor in health services and policy at the University of British Columbia, said the recommendations focus on issues that are not unique to the N.W.T.

“Providing health care in rural and remote areas of Canada has proven to be a very tough nut to crack,” he said.

He believes the investigator’s recommendations are sensible and that the territory should try to adopt them all.

“Is there a cost for that? Absolutely,” he said. But Sutherland said it is “part and parcel” of ensuring access to some level of health-care services, “regardless of where Canadians live.”

Former N.W.T. health minister Julie Green said she hopes the recommendations are acted upon. But she worries that without a plan, or accountability to create a plan, the recommendations may stall. 

“I don’t have very high expectations of them going any further,” Green said. 

“It doesn’t provide timing to come back with a plan. It doesn’t provide, as far as we know, any resources that would increase staff, supplies, equipment, technology, all those weak points.”

Green said there is only so much the territory can invest into its 33 communities but she wants the government to set priorities and make a plan to meet them.

A spokesperson for the health department wrote in an email to CBC News that the department anticipates being able to provide more information this fall about its next steps.