Question Period Note: Impacted medical transportation from Kivalliq to Manitoba due to COVID-19

• We are aware of the situation in Kivalliq and recognize that medical transportation is necessary to ensure access to health services for Nunavummiut.

• The Government of Nunavut is responsible for decisions regarding health services and has provided assurance that urgent medical services continue to be accessible.

• Non-urgent services will be addressed by local health centres in Kivalliq.

• We have recently increased funding to the Government of Nunavut to ensure travel needs can be met during the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to support partners accordingly.

Nunavut is a vast territory made up of 25 small and isolated communities, none of which are connected by roads. Approximately 85% of the population is Inuit. Each community has a small health centre, but there is only one hospital in the Territory, located in Iqaluit, which provides services to residents of the Qikiqtani (Baffin) Region of eastern Nunavut. Because of these realities, the Government of Nunavut relies heavily on medical transportation to support residents in accessing health services within and outside of the Territory.
The Non-Insured Health Benefits Program provides a suite of medically necessary goods and services to eligible First Nations and Inuit clients. In Nunavut, these benefits are administered directly by Indigenous Services Canada, as well as via a contribution agreement with the Government of Nunavut. That agreement includes funding for medical transportation, such as accommodations, meals, and air travel. In 2019-21, the value of this agreement was $45.4 million.
Since its creation in 1999, the Government of Nunavut has charged a co-payment of $125 per direction for all air travel for residents requiring medically necessary services not available in their home communities. This co-payment, which the Non-Insured Health Benefits Program reimburses for Inuit residents, applies to all forms of air transportation, whether a $2,000 scheduled flight or a $30,000 medevac (emergency air ambulance). In January 2019, the Government of Nunavut informed ISC of its intention to eliminate the co-payment with the goal of having ISC pay the full cost of medical travel for Inuit. Intergovernmental discussions on this issue remain ongoing; in the interim, in 2020-21, ISC is allocating $64.7 million for medical transportation in Nunavut, which includes an increase of up to $20.2 million from 2019-20 to cover the increased co-payment from $125 to $715.
The Government of Nunavut is also receiving $9.2 million per year in funding to off-set costs of medical transportation under Health Canada’s the Territorial Health Investment Fund (scheduled to sunset in 2020/21).

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