In this article, we\u2019ll track how news organizations reported on tensions in Fort Resolution and the consequences. Much of what follows appeared in earlier reporting, but never in one place. This account contains new information from records that were not previously public.<\/p>\n
At the heart of those news organizations\u2019 reporting was an NWT health authority policy created in 2019 that prevents nurses from leaving a health centre to attend emergencies. <\/p>\n
Advertisement. Advertisement. The policy was designed with safety in mind. Successive NWT health ministers said it wasn\u2019t fair on nurses, who don\u2019t have the training to act as paramedics, to ask them to perform that job.<\/p>\n Community governments were told they should provide ambulances, but in practice few NWT communities do. Often, First Nations or RCMP step in.<\/p>\n To residents facing a medical crisis at home, it could be hard to hear from the health centre nurse that they were not going to attend. News reports, records of phone calls and internal emails suggest this was a frequent source of conflict in Fort Resolution.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re angry at the system and they take it out on healthcare workers, and there\u2019s nothing done to protect us,\u201d said one longtime nurse who has worked in the community and who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect their employment. We\u2019ll call them Alice, which is not their real name.<\/p>\n Advertisement. Advertisement. Multiple healthcare workers told Cabin Radio they knew the 2019 policy change was frustrating to residents and the health authority had not introduced a plan to protect nurses from bearing the brunt of their dismay.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a dead wrong decision,\u201d said Alice, who\u00a0added the GNWT had \u201cdumped it back\u201d on small communities to form an ambulance service without any awareness of how to do that.<\/p>\n \u201cSo now you\u2019ve got people in homes and there\u2019s no way to get them out of the houses.\u201d<\/p>\n Alice said she didn\u2019t like the old policy, either, but the new one seemed like the wrong answer.<\/p>\n \u201cThe previous model wasn\u2019t working because it had the nurse going to a house who isn\u2019t trained how to do that and didn\u2019t have any support. I understood why nurses were nervous about going,\u201d Alice said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat they needed to do was refine the policy and get some more people involved so that it worked better, but they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe that policy shift basically put people\u2019s lives at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n The issue had already made the news<\/p>\n In 2021, Steve Norn \u2013 who was the MLA representing Fort Resolution at the time \u2013 told the legislature<\/a> an Elder had died after nurses were unable to respond to their medical emergency, even though the Elder was less than a few hundred metres from the health centre.<\/p>\n Advertisement. Advertisement. Norn said his district, Tu Nedh\u00e9-Wiilideh, had more recently lost another resident who \u201ccould very well have been still with us if there was a swift response to attend to their emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI do understand the need to protect our local medical staff, to prevent them from being put into compromising situations,\u201d Norn said at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, I strongly feel that Health and Social Services needs to step up their game and work with our communities to help prepare them in what to do in the event of an emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n Then-health minister Julie Green told Norn the underlying issue was a lack of ambulances, a \u201clongstanding problem\u201d that she said the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs was working to solve.<\/p>\n A day after that exchange, the CBC interviewed<\/a> Laney Beaulieu, who is from Fort Resolution and studied medical sciences at Western University.<\/p>\n Beaulieu called the GNWT policy that prevents nurses from leaving health centres in emergencies \u201cblatantly racist and dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis policy doesn\u2019t affect people in Yellowknife or Hay River, where there is a very large population of non-Indigenous people,\u201d she told the broadcaster.<\/p>\n Instead, Beaulieu said, the policy \u201cnegatively affects Indigenous people in small, isolated communities, where nurses are the only form of emergency response that\u2019s available.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement. Advertisement. The newspaper publishes an article<\/p>\n Both Norn and Beaulieu voiced concerns that focused on the policy and what it meant, in practice, for residents in distress.<\/p>\n But at the Fort Resolution health centre, Patterson said news reports were having a broader effect on staff.<\/p>\n Articles written in the past year \u201cresulted in a social media campaign of harassment and threats towards the nurses,\u201d Patterson told the NWT health authority\u2019s regional manager in an April 7, 2022 email.<\/p>\n \u201cWe also received a specific phone threat of violence after the news reports, which the COO was made aware of and we were advised to file a complaint with the RCMP.<\/p>\n \u201cThe verbal abuse of the nurses surrounding this policy continues. Bottom line, it is this community\u2019s perception that the nurses should be the ones to pick up the patient, and by not doing this we are \u2018lazy\u2019, \u2018incompetent\u2019 and \u2018racist\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n The same month \u2013 two days after the meeting about harassment \u2013 another news article<\/a> was published, this time by NWT newspaper group NNSL.<\/p>\n The headline read: \u201cFort Resolution residents demand better health treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n That article documented the experiences of residents Trudy King, Dollie Simon and Lucy Fabien.<\/p>\n Advertisement. Advertisement. \u201cThey allege incompetence from community nurses and management, a lack of patient-client professionalism, a lack of reliable staffing and even systemic discrimination. Commonly, they say they feel helpless when trying to voice their complaints,\u201d the article stated.<\/p>\n King described exactly the concern Norn, Beaulieu and others had raised \u2013 the inability of a nurse to attend a home in an emergency. In this case, she described a young woman unexpectedly giving birth at home. \u201cI took off to the health centre\u2026 but the problem was that the health centre would not send anybody to the house,\u201d NNSL quoted King as saying.<\/p>\n Simon had concerns about being billed large sums for medical travel, a part of the healthcare system for which local health centres and their nurses are not responsible.<\/p>\n Fabien described being kept waiting \u2013 unnecessarily, in her view \u2013 for bloodwork, and also being sent to Hay River for treatment at her own expense in circumstances where she similarly believed the trip was not necessary.<\/p>\n \u201cMultiple people in the community told NNSL Media that a major source of frustration is a 2019 policy that prevents community health nurses from leaving the health centre to provide home emergency services,\u201d the newspaper reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n Speaking again with Beaulieu, the medical student CBC had interviewed, the paper quoted her as saying: \u201cI think there\u2019s a big problem with high turnover and the no house-call policy has been very damaging for the nurse-patient relationship due to the contribution it has had to deaths in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n How the MLA was involved<\/p>\n By this point, Richard Edjericon had replaced Norn as Fort Resolution\u2019s MLA in a February by-election<\/a>. He was just under three months into the job.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the newspaper article \u2013 for which Edjericon had invited a reporter to the community \u2013 he said the services Fort Resolution residents relied on were \u201cnot the same as the services in Yellowknife\u201d despite the opening of a new health centre building<\/a> in 2018.<\/p>\n Advertisement. Advertisement. Healthcare workers in Fort Resolution \u201cdon\u2019t take their job seriously,\u201d NNSL quoted him as saying.<\/p>\n On reading the article, Patterson filed an RL6 \u2013 an internal form used by the health authority to report incidents.<\/p>\n In the RL6, Patterson told superiors that Edjericon \u201cwent around asking residents to provide complaints about the [health centre] with a media person.\u201d<\/p>\n She described the article as \u201cfull of outright lies and misinformation,\u201d highlighting Edjericon\u2019s comment about staff not taking their jobs seriously.<\/p>\n Patterson added there had been \u201cmultiple Facebook posts on the news pages with derogatory comments and threats towards the nursing staff.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMuch of the focus and concern from these types of complaints is on the patients. And the nursing staff wholeheartedly agree that patient care is important,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is equally important to ensure the promotion of a safe, harassment free, workplace, so we can attract and retain nursing staff. By doing this, you will also ensure excellent patient care.\u201d<\/p>\n Lori-Anne Danielson, the health authority\u2019s chief operating officer at the time, told Patterson the authority was \u201clooking into her concerns around the article.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement. Advertisement. Patterson and the Union of Northern Workers would ultimately file a grievance over her treatment by the health authority.<\/p>\n Danielson told a labour arbitrator assigned to the case, years after these events, that she met with human resources and anti-racism teams and began to work out what could be done to \u201crefute the information in the article.\u201d<\/p>\n A fight over email and in the legislature<\/p>\n Two days after the NNSL article was published, health minister Green decided to email Edjericon.<\/p>\n \u201cI know you are a new MLA, learning the ropes. Your trip to Fort Resolution with an NNSL [reporter] for a public session on health concerns raises some red flags,\u201d the minister wrote.<\/p>\n She told him \u201cit is not acceptable to publicly call down and shame the public service\u201d as they had no way to defend themselves from his accusations and could not discuss private health issues.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure if you considered the impact of your public remarks but I anticipate they are demoralizing and will make recruitment and retention of health care staff even more difficult in Fort Resolution,\u201d Green wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not the Health Authority\u2019s responsibility to staff EMTs in communities, nor to provide transportation,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is the responsibility of the community itself. Nurses provide home care, well baby visits and the like but are not available to attend emergencies outside of the health centre. This issue has been raised and addressed. The nursing policy is not going to change.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement. Advertisement. Edjericon responded on May 12.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a non-Indigenous, medium tenure cabinet minister writing to a newly elected, Indigenous ordinary member, the email in both tone and content is entirely inappropriate,\u201d he wrote to Green.<\/p>\n \u201cI will not be made silent because staff feels bad that a voice is being given to people who feel the service levels are not up to the national standard.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the experience of the people affected this is a truth \u2013 to ignore that truth and marginalize the Indigenous community because it is a difficult or inconvenient conversation is an antiquated relic of colonialism.\u201d<\/p>\n Those emails were made public by NNSL<\/a>. Meanwhile, Green carried out a CBC interview<\/a> in which she suggested: \u201cWhat I would like to see is that people feel comfortable talking to the health centre continuously and saying, \u2018I know you gave me Tylenol, that\u2019s not doing it. Could you do this for me or that for me?\u2019 And to have that interactive process at the beginning, instead of waiting to complain after the process is at the crisis point.<\/p>\n \u201cI realize that some people aren\u2019t comfortable advocating with medical professionals. They feel a little shy about their lack of expertise, but that is the right thing to do. You need to tell them how you feel, so that they know what they can do for you.\u201d<\/p>\n In the legislature later in May, the two politicians argued over each other\u2019s approaches<\/a> to the issue. (Edjericon was eventually barred for a day<\/a> because his comments were judged to have crossed a line.)<\/p>\n Edjericon said Green had tried \u201cto gaslight patients who receive unacceptable care into believing that it was their own fault for failing to advocate for their own medical conditions,\u201d concluding the minister was \u201caccountable for the disastrous treatment of Indigenous small-community members.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement. Advertisement. Green said the chief executive of the NWT health authority\u2019s Yellowknife region \u2013 which includes Fort Resolution \u2013 had twice visited Fort Resolution that month \u201cand has opened channels of communication with the leadership there to work on the specific issues people have raised.\u201d<\/p>\n Behind the scenes, the health authority drew up a communications plan to try to improve relations between residents and the health centre, which had worsened following the article.<\/p>\n That plan included drafting an open letter from the health authority\u2019s chief executive officer to the community, which read in part: \u201cWe are committed as an organization to engaging and making improvements to our care and services for all residents, and part of this discussion also must include a commitment to ensure our staff feel safe and are supported to work in a respectful environment.\u201d<\/p>\n Danielson visited the health centre for a meeting with Patterson and the authority\u2019s regional manager that Danielson described as \u201cmostly a conversation around the impact that the article was having on health centre staff.\u201d<\/p>\n Danielson later told the labour arbitrator she \u201cwanted to ensure Jennifer was OK and feeling supported.\u201d<\/p>\n Time passes, then letters arrive<\/p>\n Months passed without further controversy in the news. Then, on November 25, 2022, MLA Edjericon wrote an email to health authority chief operating officer Danielson.<\/p>\n Unlike the April article, in which the MLA had expressed views about staff collectively and on broader matters of policy, this time he named an individual.<\/p>\n \u201cLetter of Support for Fort Resolution to remove Ms. Peterson, Nurse in Charge,\u201d the email subject line read, according to the arbitrator\u2019s report, which noted the misspelling of Patterson\u2019s name.<\/p>\n Advertisement.![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/patient-experience-hss.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Cabin-Radio-Ad-600-x-500-px.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/CAITLIN-CLEVELAND_2025_-CABIN600x500.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Cabin-Radio-Web-Banner-600x500-standard-2.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image001-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/YK1-Property-Taxes-2025.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MLA-breakfast_41.jpg\")
Steve Norn in October 2019. Sarah Pruys\/Cabin Radio<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Halloween-Party-2025-Cabin-Radio-600x500-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Debeers-job-ad.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760120064_952_4493-GNWT-HSS-HPV-Marketing-Campaign-_600x500_Oct-3.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Shauna-Generic-500-x-600-Spring-2025-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/WAMP-October-2025.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/4477-GNWT-HSS-811-Marketing-Campaign-Cabin-Digital-Ads_600x500px_General-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MLA-NWT-Pay-1-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/TNA-2.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Kellet-NTPC-2025.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/NWT-Violence-Shelters.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Julie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GNWT-press-conference-20210521_20.jpg\")
Julie Green, the NWT\u2019s health minister, appears at a news conference in 2021. Sarah Pruys\/Cabin Radio<\/p>\n![\"Richard](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Ollie-20231124-530.jpg\")
Richard Edjericon. Ollie Williams\/Cabin Radio<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/054_D_600x500_L1_Driver-and-Vehicle-Operations_Eng-3.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Denny-Rodgers-MLA-ad_v3_2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ykhemp-lead-monitoring-update.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n