Talks slated toward building new hospital in Kenora, Ont.
Kenora MP Bob Nault says Ottawa should help with 'fiduciary obligations' to area First Nations
The Liberal Member of Parliament for the riding encompassing Kenora, Ont. says Ottawa should help with the costs of building a new hospital in the community.
The province is responsible for health care off-reserve, but Bob Nault said any new health care facility in Kenora should be a federal-provincial partnership, to better serve both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in the area.
"The pitch to the minister of health federally is simply that 70 per cent of all the clientele who use our facilities are First Nations people," he said.
"We have a jurisdictional obligation to have quality health care for First Nations."
Provincial health officials are slated to meet in Kenora early in 2017 to discuss a new hospital for the city, Nault said, adding that getting the project added to a government plan for upcoming capital work is crucial.
"That'll assure residents here that we're moving beyond, what I consider to be, a second-grade health care system to getting caught up with the rest of urban Canada."
Nault added that getting the proposed hospital onto the federal and provincial lists of necessary projects should have a new facility opening in Kenora in the next five to 10 years.
He said he's already spoken to the federal health minister about the need for Ottawa to help pay for a new hospital in Kenora.
"[First Nations] don't have health care in Treaty 3 on-reserve, generally," he said.
"They're expected to come to [urban] facilities ... so the reality of it is is that the federal government should participate in working with the provincial government on the financial resources necessary to meet the fiduciary obligations to First Nations in our region."