First Nations feel strain over Omicron-driven staffing shortage

OTTAWA—There are four nurses currently working in the Pimicikamak Cree Nation of northern Manitoba.

Sometimes they work through the night, says Chief David Monias, only to return again in the pre-dawn hours of the morning to conduct rapid COVID-19 tests, administer injections and attend to any emergencies they can.

There should be at least three times that number, Monias told the Star, to care for more than 8,500 people and their complex medical needs.

Her community, which has one of the highest vaccination rates in the province, has asked the federal government for additional help. But labor shortages across the country have limited what can be done.

While staffing shortages like this have delayed access to critical health care services in many parts of the country, the effects are being felt most in already under-resourced First Nations communities, Monias said.

“It just seems to keep getting worse,” he said, reflecting on a pandemic that has seen his community grapple with overcrowding and a lack of isolation space for sick relatives.

Monias is barely recovering from contracting COVID-19, after someone with the virus visited her home to fix her community’s longstanding problems with running water.

More than 75 per cent of First Nations in the province now have active cases, and several communities are moving to reinstate lockdowns and travel restrictions.

The surge in case counts pushed by Omicron on Thursday prompted Indian Services Minister Patty Hajdu to heed calls from Manitoba chiefs to streamline “cumbersome” application processes for federal aid.

“This virus is taking advantage of the vast inequalities that have existed in First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities for generations,” Hajdu told reporters.

“But as the minister of indigenous services and as the federal government, we must also work with partners to work faster to address the long-standing gaps that create a foothold for diseases like COVID-19. Housing, water, infrastructure, health care capacity – these are all areas that we urgently need to continue to address to improve the health of all indigenous peoples in Canada.”

It is a message that the federal government has conveyed since the start of the pandemic, which makes it all the more disheartening that First Nations continue to face disproportionate impacts from the crisis, Monias said.

“You would think that after almost two years … of working on fighting this virus, the government would have made some systemic changes.”

The tension between those calling for support and Ottawa’s efforts to help the most affected communities was highlighted this week, as the country contemplates the peak of the current wave.

On Wednesday, Chief Lefty Kamenawatamin of Ontario’s Bearskin Lake First Nation criticized the federal government’s “minimal” response to a COVID-19 outbreak that has infected half of its members.

He said the situation is an example of what he called the “dishonesty and negligence” that First Nations have been experiencing from the Canadian government for a long time.

A day later, Hajdu said she was “frustrated” by the situation, saying she has kept the lines of communication open and citing her department’s approval of funds to send Canadian supplies, personnel and rangers to the region.

That same day in Nunavut, Health Minister John Main admitted the territory had halted vaccinations in several communities due to staffing shortages, a move he called “great concern” in light of rising cases.

“I look at other jurisdictions, such as Quebec, where additional human resource assistance has been provided to that jurisdiction, particularly for vaccination. And as it stands today, on the human resources front, we’re still waiting for a response from our federal partners,” Main said.

Hajdu and other health officials told reporters they were not aware of any such request. The Department of Public Security did not respond to questions from the Star about whether a request for personnel from the territory had been met.

Part of the problem is that some indigenous communities require advanced practice nurses, who need specific training and clinical experience, says Melanie MacKinnon, director of the University of Manitoba’s Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing.

Frustrations are also fueled by the fact that many of the gaps communities are facing during the pandemic are systemic, such as chronic concerns about how service delivery is implemented.

“Certainly the federal government has been a major funder of some of these additional health activities and supports … we’ve seen that no system could have done this work on its own,” said MacKinnon, who also co-leads Manitoba First Nations . pandemic coordination and response team.

“Moving forward, we just need to continue to build on that collaborative momentum, as well as the need to modernize and invest in more comprehensive health care services closer to home. And I wouldn’t want to miss out on…improvements to the system that are long overdue.”

With Canadian Press archives