The Crees and Quebec have signed a funding framework Agreement that will see the Crees of Eeyou Istchee begin important upgrade to the quality of their health care services.
The funding in this new agreement will support the operations of the CBHSSJB, capital investments in buildings, equipment and information systems from 2013 to March 31, 2018. Items for capital investments will be funded until March 31, 2020.
“With the signature today of the new health Agreement and funding framework, the Crees and Quebec are demonstrating their shared commitment to improving the health and social services provided to the Crees of Eeyou Istchee,” said Grand Chief Coon Come at the signing.
“This is a tangible example of partnership between the Crees and Quebec to improve the lives of the people of Eeyou Istchee. It is this partnership that we, the Crees, wish to pursue with Quebec in other fields of activity, including governance, so that we share in the responsible and sustainable development of Eeyou Istchee for our common benefit,” he added.
The signing took place in Chisasibi July 20 between Grand Chief Coon Come, James Bobbish, Chairman of the Cree Board of Health and Social Services of James Bay (CBHSSJB), Health and Social Services Minister Yves Bolduc and several other Quebec cabinet ministers, including Native Affairs Minister Geoffrey Kelley.
According to Roderick Pachano, a former Chief who was hired by the Grand Council to assist Cree-Quebec Negotiator Able Bosum at a special negotiating table for the CBHSSJB as part of the recent Governance talks between the province and the Crees, this current deal is to settle a claim filed against Quebec.
As Pachano explained, the claim filed was for non-implementation of a portion of the 2002 New Relationship Agreement, which included health board funding and implementation of Section 14 of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement.
While the 2002 Agreement focused on creating a front line for services such as the creation of clinics and other facilities in the communities, this new deal’s focus will be more about a strategic regional plan for the CBHSSJB, the development and consolidation of regional services as well as continued development and improvement of service delivery foreseen in the previous agreement.
“We are looking at $280 million in capital investments alone and this will be for a seven year period,” said Pachano. “There are two parts to this agreement and that will be basically for operations and the health board and this is for five years and then the second part is the capitol itself and that is over a seven year period to build. The assumption is that this will be build over seven years instead of five years.”
That means a number of new capital works projects will be coming for Cree health care service delivery, as well as new services throughout the communities. Housing will also be provided for those who will be administering the new services.
“The regional hospital here in Chisasibi will be replaced with a new facility that will have a series of new services added to it,” noted Pachano. “The new facility is a huge project in relation to everything else up here and it will be scheduled to be finished within six to seven years.”
According to Pachano this facility will serve both as a hospital and a walk-in clinic that will include a many number of state-of-the-art upgrades, an increase in beds and also a birthing clinic that will serve a few other surrounding communities.
While the facility in Chisasibi will also serve other communities like Whapmagoostui and Wemindji, it will not be the only community to receive a birthing centre. ONe is also planned for Mistissini and others could be announced.
In terms of other major service upgrades, the communities of Waskaganish and Mistissini will also become equipped to offer Haemodialysis.
“The real cost up here is really huge as we have to spend on transporting people out of the communities for certain things and now we are going to try to bring these services into the communities as this will be less costly. Some of these facilities are going to have some very state of the art, high tech features as we are going to be working with tele-medicine and tele-health,” said Pachano
This new deal has also made way for new administrative buildings in Chisasibi for the CBHSSJB as staff had to move out of the current facility this past spring. Along with those buildings a new warehouse or utility shop to conduct repairs has also been slated for construction.
New spending has also been announced to improve youth protection and healing services, traditional healing centre and other services. There will be increased human resources regional support and training while information technology services will be augmented to support the CBHSSJB.
In addition to all of the new facilities, almost the entre region will be seeing the creation of 240 new homes to house those who will be filling all of the new positions.
“They have already built something like 260 to 270 in the last five years but those ones were financed through the communities. This time they will be getting the funding directly through the deal to services the mortgages,” said Pachano.
“Chisasibi will be getting over 120 of these units and Mistissini will get something like 45 units. All of the communities will be getting something except Waswanip because they already have a temporary surplus there right now.”
According to Pachano, these units will be comprised of single units all the way up to family homes in order to meet the needs of the new professionals soon to be employed by the health board.
While he could not confirm exactly how many new positions would be opening up by the expansions being made by the health board, Pachano said that there would be at least 240 as that was the number of units being built.
According to Pachano, there will also be a many number of opportunities for Cree youth to take advantage of the employment opportunities and in turn the housing opportunities that will be available through this agreement. The hope here is that as many of these positions as possible will go to Crees instead of relying on staff from outside of Eeyou Istchee.
With so many new health care and social service jobs on the horizon and an added employment boost resulting from the construction boom for the incredible amount of infrastructure involved in this Agreement, the opportunities for Crees are more numerous than ever. And most importantly: it could make for a healthier Cree Nation.
