Equal Health Care for All Canadians * Globe & Mail Web Exclusive * July 7, 2009

Imagine for a moment that you are a pregnant 19-year-old Inuk living in a community of 1,000 people in Arctic Canada. There is no hospital, no doctor stationed permanently in town, not even a midwife. And so when it comes time to deliver, you must fly (because they are no roads) to the nearest major city to welcome your new child into the world.

You are alone in the hospital, in the city, because the Health Canada program that covers many (but not all) health care costs for First Nations and Inuit, will pay for your travel costs but not your partner’s or your mother’s. And because the hour-and-a-half flight costs several hundred dollars, the cost of two weeks’ worth of groceries, they simply cannot afford to join you.

As the labour pains grow faster and stronger, you wonder if you will defy the odds. You know that Nunavut’s infant mortality rate is the highest in Canada, with 16 deaths per 1,000 live births. This is the reality for Inuit mothers and children in Canada’s Inuit communities. These are the odds we fight to defy every day.

You deliver a baby girl, Rosalie. I encourage you to read Rosalie’s Story: Putting a face on Inuit maternal and child health issues, part of a UNICEF Canada report on the health of aboriginal children in Canada released this week. The report reveals that health indicators among children in Nunavut are approaching the levels of those in Sri Lanka and Fiji.

Aboriginal Children’s Health: Leaving No Child Behind is the Canadian supplement to State of the World’s Children, an annual survey of child development indicators around the world. This year’s State of the World’s Children survey examines maternal and child health benefits. The Canadian supplement pays particular attention to the health of aboriginal mothers and children, with a focus on the personal stories of Inuit, First Nations and Metis.

The infant mortality rate is more than a technical measure of the deaths of young children, the UNICEF report states. It is an indicator of seismic fault lines in the delivery of health services to mothers and children.

And while rates have remained high and even increased among Inuit, the overall Canadian infant mortality rate has declined steadily, and now stands at five deaths per 1,000 live births.

This, coupled with other alarming health indicators among Inuit, points to a health care crisis in Canada’s North.

The tuberculosis rate among Inuit is 90 times greater than the rate among the non-immigrant Canadian population. This at a time when the Canadian incidence of the disease has fallen to its lowest rate ever recorded. Inuit men suffer from the highest rates of lung cancer in the country and kill themselves at a tragic and furious pace.

Inuit children are nearly 50 percent less likely to have seen a doctor in the past year than non-Inuit. They are also more likely to live in poverty and in overcrowded homes, which increases their susceptibility to communicable diseases and viral infections.

The sudden and rapid spread of the H1N1 virus in our communities demonstrates this. Nunavut recorded its first case of swine flu in late May. Less than a month later there were more than 200 cases.

 “I’ve lived in countries with nowhere near the resources Canada has and they’re able to reach the most vulnerable,” said Nigel Fisher, president and CEO of UNICEF Canada.

This year marks the 20^th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which obliges governments to ensure that all children receive the highest attainable standard of health and access to health care services.

As we approach Canada Day, I urge Canadians to pressure the Prime Minister to end the cycle of neglect and ensure that all children receive the health care to which they’re entitled. That cannot happen until services for Inuit children are funded to the same level as all Canadian children.

Mary Simon

President, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami