Christine Tootoo had to spend weeks in a hotel, far from home, while she awaited the arrival of her second baby. Tootoo lives in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, and since there isn’t a birthing centre close by, she had to fly to Winnipeg ahead of her due date earlier this year (a distance of approximately 1480 kms).
One early morning in her hotel room, her contractions came fast and irregular. By the time her partner, Rico Manitok, went to warm up the car, everything changed.
Manitok called 911 at 4:12 a.m. Two minutes later, their daughter was born on the floor of a Winnipeg hotel room.
Across many northern and remote Indigenous communities, families must leave weeks before giving birth to get the medical care they need. Some travel alone, others bring a support person, while children and extended family stay behind.
In terms of birth rates, FN are ahead of every other local demographic (local as in ‘Canadian’). They’re the only local demographic that’s actually growing, by quite a bit, while all the others are below sustainability. I can appreciate that this is an issue. But in terms of funding and equity, I don’t see why we, as a tax-base, should be dedicating more funding and money to a demo that’s already ‘advantaged’ in this regard.
Anyone who lives in a super remote location, is giving up various amenities that city-dwellers enjoy. And city-dwellers enjoy those amenities because there are enough people around to support those amenities / services. Rankin Inlet has a population of 2700. The largest city in Nunavut has less than 10k people, and is an equal pain in the ass to get to as Winnipeg – so she’d likely need to travel no matter what with that setup, even if there was something ‘closer’ that had additional facilities to provide care for problematic births, it’s still ‘you’re in a hotel room outside your normal community giving birth’. If you want more amenities, encourage more colonials to come north, get the populations up to support more advanced facilities/amenities, rather than dumping on them routinely, impeding development, and aiming to setup racially segregated systems. Change the conversation from “FN are so hard done by, even though they’re the only demo that’s actually growing in Canada!” to “We need more infrastructure for everyone in the northern regions of the country, we want more people to migrate north and to diversify from the 49th parallel”.