NDP MPP Sol Mamakwa holds an eagle feather as he stands in the Ontario legislature in Toronto, and speaks in his language, Oji-Cree, on May 28.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Minutes before it was time to ask his historic question in the Ontario legislature, NDP MPP Sol Mamakwa panicked and changed his mind about going first – quietly walking over to his party leader and house leader and looking into whether he could go second instead.
But he was told it was his day and he had to take the lead question, Mr. Mamakwa wrote in a social media post, with a photo that captured the moment last Tuesday. He gathered his strength and, in his Indigenous Anishiniimowin (Oji-Cree) language, delivered a speech that marked the first time a language other than English or French was officially recognized and written into the Ontario legislature’s record.
Mr. Mamakwa – the only First Nations MPP in Ontario, representing the northwestern riding of Kiiwetinoong – used his moment to ask Premier Doug Ford if the province would build a long-term care home in Sioux Lookout. Mr. Mamakwa’s mother, an elder in a wheelchair, was celebrating her 79th birthday as she witnessed the moment along with a large group of family and friends.
Premier Doug Ford renewed his commitment to make good on the long-standing promise that would deliver 76 additional long-term care beds to the small, rural town in northwestern Ontario.
“I’m committing today, in the public: We will be building those beds. We’ll be building a home for Sioux Lookout,” Mr. Ford said.
Mr. Mamakwa’s efforts for equitable health care comes from a long history to get the unique needs of Northern Ontario met. Sioux Lookout has long been a service hub for the region, which includes dozens of First Nations across treaties 3, 5 and 9, many of them fly-in communities with limited access to services like health care.
Town councillor Reece Van Breda said there is a seven-year waitlist for a long-term care bed in Sioux Lookout. The number of long-term care beds available in the region amounts to one to every 1,000 people, compared with the provincial average of 30 beds for every 1,000 people, he said.
There are 33 communities in the Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority catchment area in addition to the town’s 6,000 residents, which is about half Indigenous.
“Putting these long-term care beds in Sioux Lookout is the government helping to recognize that Sioux Lookout is the hub of the North, and that more services in Sioux Lookout means it’s less of a burden for Thunder Bay, Kenora, Dryden, Atikokan,” Mr. Van Breda said.
Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre was built in 2010 and designed for an expansion of long-term care beds. The holdup is overwhelming the hospital’s other services, according to hospital president and chief executive officer Dean Osmond.
He said they are operating at an average 120-per-cent capacity and that alternative-care patients waiting for long-term care take up half of the acute care beds in the 60-bed facility. That leaves other acute care patients waiting in the emergency department or at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre about 400 kilometres away.
“We have been in talks with the Ministry of Long-term care, and have provided them with the capital and operating dollars required to be able to successfully operate these beds,” Mr. Osmond said in an e-mail statement.
In 2018, then-premier Kathleen Wynne promised 70 additional beds, and in 2021, Mr. Ford said he would stand by that commitment, promising to be there himself to break ground.
Garnet Angeconeb, a patient in the Sioux Lookout hospital who is waiting for a long-term care bed, said in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail that some of the 76 beds should go to the First Nations up north.
The Anishinaabe residential school survivor and advocate from local Lac Seul First Nation has previously written to the province with his concerns over the level of care available for patients.
“Elders need to be near their loved ones. Elders should not be forced to move away from familiar surroundings in the sunset years of their life,” he said.
“In the last year or so I’ve seen seniors and elders endure hardships such as: being lonesome, dying alone, lacking stimulation, facing language and cultural obstacles, and eating “residential school” type of food.”
In Minister of Long-Term Care Stan Cho’s reply to Mr. Mamakwa’s question, he empathized with the moral obligation of caring for senior parents and noted the unique challenges for rural and northern areas such as Sioux Lookout, including Indigenous communities.
“Come to my office and we can go through the process together and the challenge that are facing the allocation of 76 beds that are outstanding,” Mr. Cho said.